TMCnews Featured Article

 

Like the contestants on the show who are judged by their peers, the sphere of influence of hugely popular social networking sites such as Facebook (News - Alert) (News - Alert) and Twitter are likely the motivation for changes to Yahoo’s home page, which debuted Tuesday. The launch represents the most significant change to the Yahoo homepage since the company's inception, Yahoo officials said.

 

The 15-year-old Yahoo Web site will roll out its new look, sprucing up its Web site’s home page with a long-promised makeover that is supposed to make it easier to see what’s happening at the Internet’s other hot spots, the Associated Press reported.

 

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet search and e-mail company is also scheduled to release its second quarter financial results this afternoon. When reached by TMCnet, Yahoo officials said the information constituted a “press leak” and would provide an official release at 4:20 p.m. Eastern. However, a sneak peak of the new home page became available this afternoon, confirming the revamp.

 

The updated home page is part of an overhaul aimed at recapturing some of the buzz that Yahoo has lost to increasingly popular online hangouts like Facebook, MySpace (News - Alert) (News - Alert) and Twitter, according to the Associated Press. According to a company statement, "With the new Yahoo homepage, people can easily add apps – from Yahoo or virtually any other site on the Web – and access them from their computer or mobile devices so that their favorite content, services and experiences are always at their fingertips."

 

Recent Web analytics show Yahoo has fallen behind in search engine market share.

 

As reported by TMCnet, more than a month after its release, Bing took 12.9 percent of the U.S. market over Yahoo’s (News - Alert) 10.15 percent on July 9, according to StatCounter Global Stats, a Web analytics company. It was the second time since June that Bing surpassed Yahoo traffic, the company announced.

 

StatCounter reported last month that Bing surpassed Yahoo! one day following the site’s June 1 launch. Overall in June, StatCounter said Bing took third place in search engine market share. Microsoft (News - Alert) (News - Alert) had 8.23 percent share in the United States behind Yahoo at 11.04 percent and Google (News - Alert) (News - Alert) at 78.48 percent, the company said.

 

In April, Yahoo announced a third round of layoffs – approximately 675 employees – after the company reported its Q1 net income fell to $118 million, or 8 cents per share, down 78 percent from a year earlier. Excluding some one-time items from the 2008 first quarter and one-time charges from the first quarter of 2009, Yahoo earned 15 cents per share, down 17 percent from a year ago.

 

However, Yahoo’s site has remained among the Internet’s most traveled. In a June 2009 analysis of the top properties where search activity is observed, Google sites led the search market with 13.1 billion searches, followed by Yahoo Sites with 2.9 billion, according to online research firm comScore (News - Alert) (News - Alert) Inc. More than 570 million people worldwide came to Yahoo in May.

 

The Associated Press reported the company is hailing the new look as the “biggest change” to its front page since Yahoo’s Web site launched 15 years ago. It’s the first time that Yahoo has overhauled its home page since 2006.

 

Excluding advertising sales that Yahoo shares with partners, also known as traffic acquisition costs, the company reported revenue of $1.16 billion last quarter.