The New Yahoo! Australia homepage – a glimpse of things to come
Yahoo! Australia (http://au.yahoo.com) recently launched their new homepage design, a huge difference compared to the old one and to other local Yahoo! sites everywhere. The layout and design is obviously the most apparent of the changes but there are 2 main things in AU homepage which makes it a cut above the rest and gives all of us a glimpse of what to expect with the big Purple and Gold.
1. First, the user can immediately check how many new emails he/she has upon log in because at the right side of the search bar at the header, an email counter can be seen (with the customary greeting), the weather is also displayed just below it (check out the image below). Before, email was located in a cluster with the other services (Answers, Messenger, Radio, etc.) below the header at the right side, but this change obviously shows focus is being given to Yahoo!'s most used and most popular service.
2. The second noteworthy change is the box at the middle right area of the portal, just below the LREC banner ad. This updates the old cluster of services before and makes your Yahoo! front door experience more personal and more social by displaying other content you may have in other Y! properties like Answers, Flickr, Video, Groups, et. al.
It's definitely a glimpse into the future and it reflects the jist of what Brad Garlinghouse presented in the recently concluded ad:tech event, in this Web 2.0 world, you don't necessarily have to create a social destination, just make your destination social. With 83% of Internet users in the Philippines having a social networking profile, don't you think that upgrading to a similar layout and design will work perfectly for the Yahoo! Philippines website? Let me know your thoughts. 
August 4th, 2009 - 12:25
mm.. informative