Monday, 22 September 2008

Check Your Gmail on Yahoo Now

Yahoo has started testing a new home page designed to boost its usability and increase stickiness. The new design, the company's first in two years, will bring the things that matter most to you - no matter where they 'live' on the Web, Yahoo Senior Vice President Tapan Bhat wrote on the company's blog.

Included in the redesign are Yahoo staples including news and entertainment, but on the left hand panel is an active list of running applications. These applications, which include Mail, Flickr and eBay, provide up-to-date information and real-time updates. For example, current screenshots show the eBay tab displaying information on running auctions.

The new version of the portal also features a dashboard area that previews content from a range of third party providers including email services from rivals AOL and Google. Visitors are able to personalize the dashboard by selecting applications from a range of content providers.

Bhat explained that more features would be added over time, including friends' feeds that let users stay informed of their contacts' changes and movements. Only a small group of users in the U.S., UK, India and France have been invited to participate in the trial, and Yahoo is not currently accepting applications.