Welcome home to the new Yahoo.com

Posted July 21st, 2009 at 1:33 pm by Tapan Bhat, Integrated Consumer Experiences

 151 Comments / Filed in: Trends & News

It’s a huge day – for us and for you. After months of testing, listening, adjusting, and testing again, we’re ready to start rolling out a new Yahoo! homepage – one that is tailored to you and your interests like never before.

You’ll soon see for yourself. Starting today, anyone living in the U.S. can opt-in to the new page by visiting http://yahoo.com/trynew, and our friends in France, India, and the UK will have access to localized versions in the coming week. We’ll start rolling out to other markets in the next month.

This new launch represents the most significant change to our homepage since the company’s inception. Our new homepage has been built around the people who use it and we’ve made sure every pixel counts. Gone is the sea of links to Yahoo! products – that was really more about us than you. And you only used a handful anyway, so why not let you decide how to use that real estate?

You can now customize your Yahoo! homepage (with a click or two) and make it your own, bringing in your favorites websites, whether they’re from Yahoo! or somewhere else on the Web. That means there could eventually be more than 110 million individual versions of our homepage out there in the U.S. alone – with people adding content that could range from Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Finance, and omg! to Gmail, epicurious, NPR, The New York Times, Facebook, and much more. The sky’s the limit.

You’ll see and hear a lot more from us in the coming weeks about this new design, but here are highlights of what’s new:

• My Favorites – You can easily choose from a dashboard of more than 65 apps to add directly to your homepage, including different email providers (AOL, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail), best of breed content sites (Barron’s, NPR, omg!, USA Today), popular social networking sites (Facebook and MySpace), and dozens of others. These apps let you preview, interact with, or navigate to your favorite sites from one easy check-in point.
• App Maker – You can create your own app on the fly by adding virtually any URL of your choice.
• Trend Setter – A new trends snapshot lets you keep tabs on the most popular Yahoo! searches, insights from Yahoo! Buzz, and fun facts from around the Web.
• PC to Mobile Sync (coming soon) – Whatever new apps you add on your computer stay with you when you’re mobile.
• News, Your Way – Your news is now hyper-local and you can also toggle the main news module for more of the big news that matters.
• Social Updates – You can now share your current “status” with friends directly from the homepage, see what your friends are doing across the Web, and integrate with leading social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

Over the years, we’ve evolved our homepage to help you simplify the Web and your life, which both only seem to get more complicated. (Did you know the average person in the U.S. visits 85 sites a month? Exhausting.) You’ve got your world to stay on top of and the rest of the world. Now you can do it all in one place and get more done, faster.

One other thing you’ll notice is that we’re now sporting a new purple logo, officially ushering in Yahoo!’s long-standing corporate color. The legacy red logo, chosen in 1995 because purple often resolved closer to blue or brown on old monitors and red popped better against our historically gray background, has been retired in favor of the color that is truly synonymous with Yahoo!.

Oh, and tremendous thanks to the millions of you who tested the site, told us what you loved and hated, tested it again, and guided us to this final design. Since we run one of the most trafficked sites on the Web, we don’t take changes lightly. Your experience drives everything we do and your feedback was invaluable. Thanks for letting us listen.

Learn more here and then go check out the new Yahoo! Homepage at http://yahoo.com/trynew. And here are some screenshots and photos of the site’s 15-year evolution.

Tapan Bhat
SVP, Integrated Consumer Experiences

Tagged: news, yahoo! homepage, yahoo! open strategy

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151 Comments Add your own

Jen | July 21st, 2009 at 2:15 pm

omg,
i adore the new homepage so much cleaner and simpler and easier to get around and i love that we can add apps right on the homepage makes it so much nicer thank you so much yahoo!
yahoo fan since 2000
Jen

eknirb | July 21st, 2009 at 3:12 pm

Dont forget to have the Toolbar team change the Y to purple..and the Firefox search icon to purple. Get the red out!

Anshuman Jain | July 21st, 2009 at 3:50 pm

First of all congratulations for this major change to yahoo home page. I want to suggest an improvement to the finance section. Please add a functionality of either adding the portfolio manually(which is at present) or download that from the user’s online stock broker like TD ameritrade, scottrade etc. It will be a big draw for people like us since we do lot of transactions and its cumbersome to add individual ticker to the portfolio. I wish Yahoo lots of success.

Parag Shah | July 21st, 2009 at 4:04 pm

It’s here! After being chosen for testing for n number of times, I can finally send the new homepage to my friends to see what I have been using talking about and using since the past couple of months now.

The new Y! homepage absolutely rocks! Congratulations to the team for rolling it out.

Adi R | July 21st, 2009 at 4:48 pm

Can you tell us a little more, perhaps in another post even, how this relates to My Yahoo page?

I never really go to Yahoo front page, ever since I customized My Yahoo page many moons ago.

And is My Yahoo getting a face lift?

Gregg | July 21st, 2009 at 5:09 pm

I would like to know why we can’t comment on the news items like we could before? Before, all you had to do was buzzup and then be able to comment. What happened to that feature???

eknirb | July 21st, 2009 at 6:02 pm

The other thing I might change is drop the ‘Recommended’ box down below on the left nav. Frees up more spaces for your own buttons. I know that I won’t exceed the # that will fit on the front, as I would then have to scroll down
to the bottom of the column just to advance to page (2).

dennisb | July 21st, 2009 at 6:21 pm

Great, I can’t wait to set up my custom Yahoo homepage!

eknirb | July 21st, 2009 at 7:58 pm

One more thing.

When you want to set the new Yahoo! as home for Firefox;
it gives you the drop down icon to drag onto home icon..the URL points to http://www.yahoo.com.

Now if you’ve chosen the new page version, the cookie should redirect to the new Metro version.

But; even tho you set it as home, it still shows ‘Make Y! your homepage’.

wegatalk | July 21st, 2009 at 9:22 pm

Really google is dominating now adays & it’s good to see that Yahoo is now trying to recover it’s lost galore by developing some cool things. Hoping to see the yahoo as Number one.

wegatalk | July 21st, 2009 at 9:27 pm

When I started using the internet in 2001 , the only site i knew was Yahoo, & the only chat site I used was Yahoo messanger, but now the things have changed.It’s a long time since I used Y Messanger. others are giving so much advaced features & ease for connectivity that it is
rare to use Yahoo. Please integrate yahoo messanger with all yahoo services. Be on Top again.

Kamal Dev | July 22nd, 2009 at 1:42 am

I am very impressed the new changes in the overall design and flow of the page. Its more readable, less cluttered nd accessible. Freedom to add apps and incorporate stuff from across the web is a huge plus. You have done a great job! Keep up the creativity Yahoo!

Balakumar Muthu | July 22nd, 2009 at 3:42 am

More neat simple yet richer look and feel, very pleasing.

Frank | July 22nd, 2009 at 5:11 am

Wow! It’s interesting to see how much the Yahoo! site has changed over the years, I didn’t remember all of it’s incarnations, but it’s good to see the place keeps doing maintenance, heh! ;)

Keep up the great work Yahoo! :)

tx20fan | July 22nd, 2009 at 6:31 am

Adi R: maybe it’s just me or my computer, but I can’t access a comment area on any of the articles I pull up off My Yahoo Home Page. I have to go back to Yahoo Home Page and find the articles under Buzz and scroll down thru hundreds of articles to find the one I want to comment on. If this isn’t just me, I don’t see any reason to have a My Yahoo Home Page anymore and it seems like alot more work than the old way.

Nick | July 22nd, 2009 at 8:08 am

to return back to original yahoo front page
IE-
Internet Options > Settings > View Files …..remove yahoo related cookies

John T | July 22nd, 2009 at 8:17 am

new website bites. Guess I will make the switch to google afterall. F off yahoo.
should have done this years ago

Chris | July 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 am

Please revert to the classic Yahoo! I’m not at all a fan of the new site. Looks like a giant step backwards in terms of graphics and layout.

gag | July 22nd, 2009 at 8:50 am

looks good, thanks for the new homepage

mely | July 22nd, 2009 at 12:07 pm

i like it its ok but i liked the other one better how do i change back to the before yahoo!?

Reza | July 22nd, 2009 at 10:51 pm

I had Yahoo as my home page since the beginning of time.
I really enjoyed the world news and entertainment.
It was like morning paper to me.
Yahoo home page was must in the morning before I have my breakfast.
But lately, they added this type add that pops up in a new window and speaks load (doesn’t want to shut up).
It’s so annoying that I decided it’s time to move up and have google as home page.
I understand Yahoo make money with ads but I believe there is limit to it.

gag | July 23rd, 2009 at 7:14 am

coz yahoo! is about the directory, could yahoo! have a daily podcast of the spark but like the view where yahoo! surfers talk about the topic and the sites involved

at the right bottom we can have a random good url displayed for the day and yahoo! can rate it with 5 stars for design, information, etc.,

edward houle | July 23rd, 2009 at 8:41 am

your new home page sucks plain & simple

matt | July 23rd, 2009 at 9:08 am

I’m like the new homepage a lot, but where’s the Twitter app?

SuzyQ | July 23rd, 2009 at 10:28 am

I think the new homepage is terrible…and what’s worse is that I got “suckered” into it. Check out the new home page really means “click here and the new home page will automatically be installed”. So much for just checking to see what it would be like.
And the instructions to return to the old…delete your cookies, etc., reboot your computer and then type http://www.yahoo.com…didn‘t work!
Considering finding a new home page just because I was tricked into downloading the new home page!

Gene Graves | July 23rd, 2009 at 7:09 pm

I hate the new website and the e-mail page. It sucks.

Nuff said….

starwarsfan | July 26th, 2009 at 6:00 pm

I actually like it! I can customize it!

rl1856 | July 26th, 2009 at 7:14 pm

How do I revert to the previous home page ? I do not like the new format. Why weren’t users given a choice ? Just because it is new, does not mean it is automatically better.

Kristine Schachinger @schachin | July 27th, 2009 at 9:28 pm

lol so funny when you can tell people are stacking their own comments..

Scotty | July 28th, 2009 at 4:07 am

Can’t staand the new Homepage either. All the stuff popping up gets in the way of navigating. I too would like instructions on reverting to the former Homepage. Perhaps I will try Google.

dana elliott | July 28th, 2009 at 11:29 am

I dont like the new home page, i want my old home page back

Webext | July 28th, 2009 at 5:04 pm

Seriously, this site is terrible.

First, there are mouse-over effects all over the place so things start changing seemingly at random at first. Course, once I’m trained not to use my mouse, which is actually impossible, it will all be good. And, who cares that a mouse-over obscures all of the content on the page.

Secondly, the site does look clean. So clean, in fact, that you can’t differentiate content. At least my eye isn’t pulled to something you don’t want me to but then it’s not pulled to anything. Switching colors helped, a little.

That said, what really helped was stumbling on to “Compact View”. That, in my opinion, is a fairly tight site.

Seriously, this site is a loser.

Michael Harrison | July 30th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

Give me back the old homepage please…fast. I will not stick with this new one.

Brian | August 1st, 2009 at 9:57 pm

Nice work Yahoo!

The new page is 30 times better. I love that I can set up my favorites right in the main menu and now with the ability to create apps on the fly, the Yahoo! start page is exactly what I want it to be.

It’s graphically cleaner and much easier to navigate. Strong work!

Jody | August 2nd, 2009 at 10:43 am

Hi,

Is there anyway I can go back to my old yahoo page?

Thanks.

Jody

Roy Schroeder | August 3rd, 2009 at 6:53 am

I was visiting my grandson this week-end.

He does not like the new Yahoo! Home page.

The feature he liked on the old home page that is missing on the new is the top-stories box. He likes being able to click on a category and getting the top stories in that category listed.

chinabychance | August 3rd, 2009 at 1:29 pm

I much prefer the former Yahoo homepage. I’m very frustrated that I am unable to delete Yahoo cookies under Firefox so that I can revert to the former format. All the the Firefox help function provides is an encyclopedia about cookies. Maybe its time to re-evaluate Google’s browser and homepage. This Yahoo Microsoft thing is already stinking of Microsoft’s attitude (It’s MY way or the highway!).

NleonWill | August 14th, 2009 at 9:50 am

I love Yahoo! I think the company is innovative and dynamic. The constantly improve and change. I love it.

Thanks Yahoo!

q8daily | August 15th, 2009 at 3:49 am

I don’t like it but change is good.

David | August 18th, 2009 at 4:58 am

The old one was much better….sometimes, change is not for the best. Remember New Coke? I hate the thoughts of having to change my homepage from Yahoo, but there is no reason for me to continue with a layout and overall idea that is bad. Are you sure we are stuck with the new one?

Jimmy | August 22nd, 2009 at 4:48 am

I love that you want to track my every move. How can I get you to move right in?

kate | August 25th, 2009 at 11:05 am

I prefer the old format. The page was easier to view and access key features such as mail. I could click on “mail” and see if I had new mail and who it was from. Now this is taking me an extra step to access mail. Maybe its time to leave yahoo.

mikunda | August 28th, 2009 at 9:20 pm

Your new homepage sucks. Sorry

Dave Rae | August 30th, 2009 at 5:45 am

I am not happy with the new look. Is there any way to go back to the old style Yahoo Home Page.

Chris | August 31st, 2009 at 7:28 am

I told you before that if I was forced to use the new page, I’d change pages. I don’t know what is so hard about giving users a choice.

I pulled up my browser again today to find that you had forced me over to the new page again. I cleared my history, cookies, etc. to get back to the old one. But you know what? I’m not going to fight this war with you anymore. I’m phasing out my email as of today and changing my homepage.

Goodbye, Yahoo.

Rob | September 1st, 2009 at 4:49 pm

I do not like the new site. The AJAX mouseovers are annoying and just get in the way with little useful functionality. The new security requirement where you have to create an alternate email address and two security questions is equally annoying. Why? Stop it! I reverted back to the classic Yahoo page. It requires fewer keystrokes to get what I want.

And my poor mother, who is 81. She is overwhelmed by the new features. AJAX is confusing her. Now, I have to walk her through how to return to the classic view. A portal should be simple.

Maria | September 8th, 2009 at 10:28 pm

SORRY, BUT I HATE YOUR NEW HOMEPAGE AND WOULD LIKE TO GET THE OLD ONE BACK! I HATE THE FACT THAT YOU HAVE IMPOSED THE NEW PAGE ON EVERYONE!

David Hale | September 10th, 2009 at 5:42 am

I don’t care about all the Great Changes. I just want “My Favorites” to STOP POPPING UP. If I want to change something I will go looken. I don’t to see your POP UP ever time the page opens!!!!

Erich Kreim | September 11th, 2009 at 9:00 pm

I hate it! , you all might feel quite proud of yourselves but I hate the look period!! Yahoo has been my Home page since forever and having this new layout forced on me makes me wanna scream ! It’s like coming home after a long day at work to find someone decided to repaint my house and rearrange all my furniture to their liking GRRR. To get ride of it I have to delete the yahoo cookies and reopen several times to get the old layout to stick !!

Tom Dowell | September 13th, 2009 at 12:30 am

The new yahoo home page SUCKS!! Its a pain to use, less intuative and less user friendly. I’ve used yahoo mail for years, but idf you keep this piece of crap, I’ll be dumping all of yahoo. This just goes to show that yahoo and its leadership is not AT ALL in touch with its user base! Forcing it on me every time I try to clear it, is one more reason to just drop yahoo all together. This is SO frustrating!!!

samir | September 13th, 2009 at 8:02 pm

BRING BACK THE OLD HOME PAGE PLEASE!!!!!!

YAHOO IS MAKING A BIG MISTAKE. THE OLD HOME PAGE IS MUCH BETTER……

Jeremy | September 14th, 2009 at 12:27 pm

I have had just about enough of having to delete cookies and reboot to get the old page back, only to have it pop up again a few days later. I am just about done. Yahoo, you can give me a choice, or I will make my own choice and go elsewhere. I despise the new look.

Mareya | September 14th, 2009 at 6:07 pm

I REALLY HATE THE NEW HOMEPAGE IT SOCK MAN

David | September 15th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

I HATE IT!!! I want the old Yahoo! back.

waterwalker | September 15th, 2009 at 6:00 pm

I hate the presumption that everyone just loves all the new pops when you scroll your mouse down the category list.
That is so annoying to me.
If I want to see something that spastic I’ll go watch a jevenile play a pinball machine.

waterwalker

maine | September 16th, 2009 at 3:58 am

Yahoo new page looks nice, but I REALLY dislike the roll over pop ups. They are so irritating that I am switching home pages to MSN.
Good bye yahoo.

tinman | September 16th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

new yahoo page is terrible. Yahoo is alienating it’s customers by forcing this on them. Stop redirecting them from the classic page and yahoo.com to the localised pages, make this opt in not opt out!

Get rid off the annoying apps, huge flash ads, Search assistant which just never goes away… and add a basic email link which takes you straight to your inbox. Get rid of all the junk on the inbox page such as “what I’m doing now” and the internet messaging chat”… Make the news section the most prominent on the page…

LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS YAHOO!!!!!

wesley simpson | September 17th, 2009 at 9:41 am

Please let me have my favorites back. I need and want it back. I have a lot of memories in there and I’m getting upset that you people can just hide it from me. Surely you’ll didn’t delete my favorites without giving me a chance to save it and move it somewhere else. Give it back, PLEASE. Thank you, Wesley Simpson San Marcos, Texas.

Jon | September 17th, 2009 at 11:57 am

This new page is awful. Oversimplified, hard to use and poorly thought out. A sugarcoated old page is not what I want. I will move to a page like the WSJ.com that provides a format to my liking- versus a format that a 10 year old wants – if you implement that “new” page.

I really think Yahoo should just let users decide if they want this “new” page or not by making the decision to keep the old page (or new page) a permanent one.

Doug | September 17th, 2009 at 6:26 pm

Sorry but I don’t like it, not at all. The pop up’s are enough to drive me insane! Please make them stop! I think it’s fine except for the pops ups. And, if you put a little window in the corner that lets me say no to the new page and I do it and I say NO, why on earth then does it keep coming back over and over again? Again please make it stop doing that!

Mickey | September 18th, 2009 at 1:21 am

Has MSN changed ….no. So there getting Yahoo to. New website sends me back to use MSN. Your new website is for KIDS not BUSINESS ADULTS. Probably designed by KIDS.

Nancy B | September 18th, 2009 at 5:39 am

I absolutely HATE this new home page. I am over 50 years old and only started even using the computer a little over a year ago, and just when I finally thought I got it figured out they go and change it. Now I can’t figure out how to get the old home page back. Makes me want to drop AT&T altogether. If you really want to make a change for the better, LOWER WHAT YOU CHARGE!!!!!

Eric | September 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 pm

Is there anyway to start a petition to bring back the old page? The new homepage sucks.
I’ve been using Yahoo! since 1994 and this is the first time you guys actually make a change that can negatively affect your brand.
That can be a bad move in an English speaking market because the 800+ million ESL speakers don’t adapt to dramatic changes in graphics, colors and branding images. It’s a fact that ESL speakers don’t like branding changes.
Your new page would be accepted in France or any other country where people identify more with words than pictures or symbols but not in the English speaking world.
You need to do three things: 1) Speak to the folks at Coke; 2) study up on language and psychology; and 3) bring back the old Yahoo! homepage.
Remember, if it ain’t broke- don’t fix it!

Helen Boring | September 23rd, 2009 at 9:40 pm

I am unhappy with this version of Yahoo. I am in my 70’s and not very knowledgeable about computers. I enjoy keeping up with e-mailing friends and relatives. I don’t understand the version 8 Yahoo. I want my previous version of Yahoo back. I believe it is version 7. I hope someone in Yahoo management will see this comment and guide me back to my previous version, Yahoo 7. In the current yahoo 8, my e-mails appear in a very small box and I need them in the large area as in version 7. Please help. Thank you.

El Saviour | September 24th, 2009 at 1:43 am

Bottom right-
About Yahoo!

First option-
Return to Classic Yahoo!

There, Done.

kelly | September 24th, 2009 at 10:58 am

The new yahoo home page is awful!!!!
Everytime I land on it a stupid flash menu comes up and says add your favorite sites… I know I can do this so stop telling and and stop blocking the news while doing it. Also when I roll over the weather it won’t stay on the weather and it goes to travel…. whats that umm yes my curser is still on the weather but I have .005 secs to read it before it goes to travel which I NEVER look at. If I click on the weather my saved location doesn’t pop up but it tells me to enter my zip. How very inconvenient. I hate flash sites. Simplify people!

Dan (UK) | September 25th, 2009 at 9:16 am

Hate the new Yahoo home page. Absolutely hate it! Immediately went back to the old version. When and if support ceases for the old version then I’m off and away after having Yahoo as my homepage for the last 9 years. T

Dan (UK) | September 25th, 2009 at 9:23 am

Hate the new Yahoo homepage. Absolutely hate it!

Immediately went back to the old version. When, and if, support ceases for the old version then I’m off and away after having Yahoo as my homepage for the last 9 years.

The TV listings takes ages. Why has it been omitted? It sits in the left panel on the old version. Also dislike the messing about with the email access area in the new version.

All in all – a retrograde step. A quick trawl through cyberspace finds loads and loads of people lamenting the demise of the old homepage and asking how to get it back (quite easy as it turns out).

Thunder_moose | September 26th, 2009 at 2:53 am

The new home page is a waste of time as i dont want any of the daft options, i want a search function and thats it the old page was better.

While we are at it why has the email been “upgraded” again, is truely terrible and nothing but a downgrade from the old version. Also i live inthe uk and have US dates on my email account which yahoo still havnt fixed.

As others have stated, it time to find another email provider and ditch yahoo if they change for the sake of change.

Why cant the old homepage be run allong side the new one, because you dont want the figures to show how many people will stick with the old page.

Martin S. | September 26th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

Hi,

I work in IT, & we have a saying that goes a little like “If something isnt broken, dont try to fix it”.
Why resort to a fundementally broken homepage then???

Please at least keep the old one!

Enough said?

Martin S. (Portchester UK)

LC Dorren | September 27th, 2009 at 9:38 pm

I have been searching the internet trying to find a way to keep the old Yahoo page without having to click the link at the bottom of the page all the time. Nothing seems to help.

One thing I have noticed is that (and I did do a crude analysis) generally on sites, even Yahoo answers, the hate to like ratio for the new page is overwhelmingly by about a 5 to 3 margin, that people dislike it. This site is about 50/50. The strongest support of the new page I have seen.

Personally I have been searching for a replacement for my Yahoo homepage, I may be on my way back to MSN. I will keep searching for about another week, then its bye-bye Yahoo. Too bad, I did like Yahoos page and used it a lot. I wonder how well the new page will go over once Yahoo advertiser figure out the loss in impressions. Google is very happy with Yahoo’s new page I am sure.

notsofatcat | September 28th, 2009 at 5:04 am

new yahoo page is very bad. The classic page is better. Too many slow loading and annoying apps and things whhich pop up all the time when you mouseover on the new one… It is very irritating being redirected all the time when you don’t want to be and have to keep cleaning cookies or clicking on the return to classic yahoo link to get the classic page back. At first I thought I had a virus on my pc and it was hijacking my browser. Yahoo have shot themselves in the foot with these changes and will show with people moving to rivals for their home page…

Kelly | October 8th, 2009 at 3:15 pm

I think it is ridiculous that we can’t comment on news articles anymore. If there is a way to do it, it’s not worth searching for it. I can always switch to Google and give up on Yahoo, since their idea of upgrading is to take away popular features for their users.

Off to Google | October 10th, 2009 at 2:26 am

New page sucks. Sorry. That’s the best term for it. I loved the fact that I could get all of my information in one place and quickly. Now, everything redirects me off the page.

The layout looks like a kindergarten student designed it.

I’m off to Google.

JoSh | October 10th, 2009 at 10:26 am

I HATE the new yahoo website! Have you ever heard the saying, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it”. I am also super pissed that it keeps popping up when I don’t want it to. I just want the old one back for good. If it continues, I will make MSN my homepage.

Nate | October 11th, 2009 at 7:59 am

The mouseover popups are terrible. Really there is no reason for such an annoying change. If someone knows how to revert to the old format please let us know. There is no ‘Return to Classic Yahoo’ option at the bottom of the page.

Britalian | October 12th, 2009 at 4:36 am

I hate the new yahoo homepage. So much so I have removed it as my set homepage and replaced it with google.

Fred upwiththis | October 12th, 2009 at 12:27 pm

I’m going to google, as i really can’t cope with the new homepage,I don’t want an account so i can setup the favourites as the one on my broswer works just fine thanks and it dosen’t pop out all over the page everytime i hover over it!, perhaps keeping an option to have the old homepage via a different link would be better thus not losing many users.

Corinda | October 23rd, 2009 at 9:27 am

How to return to original homepage

On the new website, down at the bottom under about Yahoo! there is a setting that says return to Classic Yahoo.com.

rpete | October 23rd, 2009 at 2:18 pm

Not only are they imposing the new homepage on everyone (imposed re-direct address is m/yahoo.com) but now they are tampering with the ability to return to Classic Yahoo via the tab at the bottom of the page. You get a page that says “We have encountered a problem, please try again” which you can do interminably. By enabling cookies (unprompted), exiting and re-entering you can sometimes get the “Return to Classic” to work but it reverts to the new every time you navigate away from the opening page. Very annoying! I guess I’ll switch back to the Evil Empire (Google). Too Bad. I hope Microsoft completely restructures them.

floridasaint | October 23rd, 2009 at 7:22 pm

The old yahoo homepage was much better. The new home page is awful. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. For example, the very useful 5 day weather forecast is now not available. The handy box to check on email is buried over on the left. The popup ads are annoying.

Ann | October 24th, 2009 at 3:53 am

What a horror the new Yahoo home page is!! Deleting the cookies no longer removes the default to this new page. Very difficult to navigate. Extra steps to get to mail. Weather is buried. I will use Classic version as long as I can get to it.

Roberto | October 24th, 2009 at 7:34 am

How can I return to the old http://www.yahoo.com page?
The “Return to Classic Yahoo.com” option doesn´t work
Thank you

p*d off | October 24th, 2009 at 9:31 am

I absolutely hate the new page! I always click to take me back to the classic, but it’s a real pain in the @$$ to have to do that each and every time!

Ruth Farnham | October 24th, 2009 at 7:34 pm

Another very unhappy long time user. Don’t like the new home page not one bit! Apparently customer appreciation is a thing of the past for Yahoo, ,maybe they will notice if enough of us leave.

Slawek | October 24th, 2009 at 8:00 pm

Hey, Tapan, I like ‘before’ and hate ‘after’. You are doing horrible job. Did you outsource design to India? It’s cheap, all right, but I am moving elsewhere… You can write a book “How to loose Customers”. How many people have to voice their disapproval for you to get it?

Jeremy | October 26th, 2009 at 5:13 pm

As of today, I am setting all my favs to google and sending out emails to everyone to gmail me. Yahoo doesn’t listen to its users, so it wont have users left.

Phil | October 27th, 2009 at 1:13 am

I HATE the new Yahoo homepage and it looks like we’ll be unable to switch back to the classic design as of November 11th. The new design is unattractive and not user friendly. It’s downright annoying!

If Yahoo refuses to allow users to swutch back after the 11th, I for one will be making Google my new homepage. It’s a shame considering myself and my family have used Yahoo exclusively as our homepage and email since it’s inception.

PLEASE DO NOT FORCE YOUR LONG TIME USERS AWAY, YAHOO!! Not all of us are impressed with bells & whistles that serve no purpose.

Lava | October 27th, 2009 at 2:58 am

I’m not sure why Yahoo doesn’t listen to its customers. It’s rare that people change their homepage, but I think this new page is horrid. I’m more than happy to explore other options. The reason I left Excite was because they change the format. The second page I visited the most after Excite was Yahoo. Now that Yahoo insists on changing, then I will most likely move to my next favorite.

In understand a few tweaks, but this is just horrible.

Jordan | October 27th, 2009 at 5:20 am

I HATE the new homepage! It’s a big mess! I will be switching to a different homepage if I can’t keep the old yahoo homepage. So long Yahoo!!!

Jen | October 27th, 2009 at 6:38 am

THE NEW YAHOO IS TERRIBLE! Can’t stand the annoying roll over pop-ups. Yahoo needs to stop tinkering with things and concentrate more on substance over style.

Looks like we’re going to Google! Bye Yahoo!

Snuffy | October 27th, 2009 at 6:53 am

Well, now we see that Yahoo! is forcing the new page on November 11. I’ve had Yahoo! as my homepage for about as long as Yahoo! has been around, but I’m changing now.

Ralph | October 27th, 2009 at 7:38 am

The new Yahoo page is complete garbage.. Been using yahoo for the last 7 years but come Nov. 11, I’m definitely going somewhere else.. The NEW (read crap) Yahoo page SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

c | October 27th, 2009 at 12:32 pm

I hate the new yahoo homepage, don’t want it. I want to keep classic yahoo. Thank you very much.

Chris | October 27th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

Hi yahoo,

Despite the Hate comments posted above, I must to say the new yahoo page is not really an improvement towards my view. I’ve always loved the original yahoo site, and used it for years. This “On November 11, this page will be replaced by the new Yahoo! homepage.” Should not be happening. Please Rethink this, because I’m sure some of your users would love to keep the original Home page.

What’s next? Forcing us to use the New Yahoo mail style? If so, I don’t think you’ll see me on yahoo at all… And I love yahoo!

Thanks for trying :),
chris

T | October 27th, 2009 at 8:58 pm

A conversation at yahoo….
Staff to manager: Sir, it seams that our new version is hated by most users.
Manager: Once we change it on Nov. 11, they’ll have no choice, we’ll force them to love it.
Staff: But with all the negative comments on the web were afraid that they’ll switch to Google.
Manager: Google? Why would they switch to Google? Sure it’s clean, uncomplicated, easy to get around, with no annoying pop ups. After Nov. 11th everyone will love those annoying pop ups. We’re Yahoo, we know what’s best for our millions of stupid customers who don’t know what’s good for them.
Staff: Your right, we know what’s best for them. Most of them probably can’t even spell google. They’re so dumb!

brian | October 28th, 2009 at 6:47 pm

The new homepage is really terrible. I mean just awful. The old page you knew where things were and now you have to hunt around to find what you want.
Terrible decision to dump the classic option on Nov 11

Gary | October 29th, 2009 at 5:17 pm

Well seems they are bound and determined to do this stupid change. They should give us the choice to change or not. They say you can customize the new one. I wasn’t able to customize it to look like the old one so it is useless. I refuse to have this crammed down my throat so I will be moving to Google. I can’t believe they are such big idiots but the proof is in the pudding. They act like they are the only game in town. I totally can’t stand such arrogance.

I think the conspiracy is to make bad decisions to get into trouble and then ask the government for a bailout. They have to realize that they are NOT too big to fail.

kurt miller | October 30th, 2009 at 8:26 am

same here guys, new page layout is just awful. too many popups when i try to read something. its just plain frustrating. its about as useful as their “yahoo360″ LOL
just use google…same results,only a better layout(hmmm…that consists of a plain white background and a search bar. nice & clean) Oh yeh, if you want to kill those annoying popups on yahoo just disable “javascripts”

Ed Saya | October 30th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

this page sucks i want my old yahoo home page back !

HB | October 30th, 2009 at 11:49 pm

The new home page is terrible.
Get rid of the rollover pop-ups !!!!

Grandmom | October 31st, 2009 at 10:12 am

I have been a loyal yahoo user since I got my first computer in the 1980s. The only problem I ever had with yahoo was having to change my email when the spammers got it, which I have changed frequently over the years. This new homepage has popped up many times in the last months and I have been able to change it back. It truly is a nightmare to try to use and I dislike it intensely. I thought yahoo was smarter than to try to force something so awful on its customers. It is going to be hard to change because I love the old yahoo and I probably will not be able to find a browser I like as much as I like it. But, I know I will never be able to accept this new page which is such a mess, difficult to use, and extremely annoying. If any of you find a browser similar to the classic yahoo, please post it so those of us who hate this new disaster can try it out.

Or, maybe someone out there can just start a new company and take the old yahoo page and use it. I could be mistaken, but I think you only have to make a 30% change and it would be legal. That 30% could be in all the small print that no one ever reads anyway. Someone please consider this.

Grandmom | October 31st, 2009 at 10:15 am

I’m guessing that yahoo will not publish my previous comment because it is not favorable…maybe they will decide that censorship is their next big move.

World of Rugs | October 31st, 2009 at 12:52 pm

“Is Yahoo losing the battle?”

Terrible new homepage!

For many, MANY years I have loved Yahoo for it’s nice/clean look and ease of use.
With this new page, I have a hard time finding the most used things and/or they’re placed in spots where you have to scroll down to.
Take for example the weather, events, etc…
It was nice at top and now have to find it somewhere at the bottom!
Why does Yahoo change it so much? Why change something that’s already good and works?
Being 1 of the 3 major SE’s, Yahoo is the only one with news, etc on the page. So instead of changing the look (again!!), making it worse and worse, why not focus on the engine itself and impress us with that?

On Nov. 11 I will change my SE to another one. Many ppl I know and also (were/are) ‘fans’ of Yahoo, agree with me and also are going to change.

Yahoo,
If you are reading the many posts on many! forums/blogs/etc.. on how ppl dislike the new homepage, there’s only 1 thing I have to say:
You’re loosing users and therefore are slowly loosing the battle against Google and Bing…

Really disappointed!

NATHAN | November 1st, 2009 at 2:13 am

Hate the new page. Will be moving to Google

Joyce | November 1st, 2009 at 10:37 am

I really hate the new format which I did not request. At one time there was an icon which gave the user a choice but that does not seem to be available now. I am hoping you will restore this choice before I decide to return to aol. Please, fast. Really hate having only a small portion of the mail showing and the answer page right below it. Just not a comfortable space. Sorry.

Shannon | November 1st, 2009 at 5:41 pm

Do not like your new homepage and will switch back to google if I have to use it. Will there be an option to use old homepage?

annoyed yahoo user soon to be ex yahoo useer on nov 11 | November 1st, 2009 at 6:03 pm

I have used yahoo for several years now but since the introduction of the new page which is being forced on us (thought my browser had been hacked with a redirect at first) I shall be looking for another hompage on november 11th… Yahoo should listen to their users…the rollover pop ups are annoying and slow things down….

The new page seems really badly designed and looks like it was done by a schoolkid who has not followed the basics of web design… I can only see yahoos hits on their main page plummeting on November the 11th..sad really….

Renata | November 2nd, 2009 at 7:00 pm

despise the idea of being forced to switch to a new format, which I adored. Looks like a google chrome wanna-be, which I find annoyingly intrusive. So be it, the new convoluted features will finally force me to switch my homepage away from Yahoo! for good. The good things never seem to last, or just turn bad.

Yadda | November 4th, 2009 at 8:09 am

The new Yahoo page is a mess! I think I’m switching to AOL. It’s similar to Yahoo without the unfriendly changes and crappy mouse over effects…best of all, they have a Yahoo mail button (as well as gmail) so you can still access your Yahoo mail. Bye bye Yahoo!

lovegun | November 4th, 2009 at 8:26 am

i like the classic home page.on the new one when my mouse passes over the left side of the page i get pop ups.you know the area with answers,autos,games,ect.the old page dosnt do this.that really burns me up.so im sticking with the classic,until im forced to take the new one,then me and my office will use something other than the new yahoo.if i wouldnt get the pop ups i think i could live with the new page,as of now NO WAY !!!
classic page cant be beat.

As Good As New Coke | November 4th, 2009 at 4:39 pm

I’ve been a faithful Yahoo guy forever and cannot stand the new homepage. One simple rule in life… don’t fix it if it ain’t broken. I have yet to talk to anyone that does not hate the new page. Please give us the option of keeping the old page that we like.

J. McK | November 5th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

It is unclear to me how the new Yahoo page is better then the classic page. The new page has is harder to navigate and in general a pain in the arse. How is this better? “New” does NOT always mean better.

A. Penton | November 7th, 2009 at 8:42 am

The new page stinks in my opinion. The pop ups are horrible. I have used Yahoo as my homepage for over ten years but as of this morning my new home page is Google.com.
I have had it with your forced changes and not being able to revert to the Classic look.

It’s no wonder that Google is kicking your butt. Your stock price speaks volumes.

Leaving Yahoo! Nov 11th | November 9th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

Come on yahoo, the new site is a hot mess! I understand change is a part of life, but the new homepage is not a step forward. The least you could do is leave yahoo classic as an option for the faithful…. maybe, maybe…no. OK, will be switching to google November 11th along with many others.

T | November 11th, 2009 at 8:51 am

I don`t like the new yahoo homepage at all!!
Why do you have to change it?The old(classic) version is fantastic!

Natasha | November 11th, 2009 at 12:29 pm

I have had yahoo as my home page for as long as I can remember but starting today I begin my search for a new home page. I don’t think that this change was necessary… I really dislike the new set up.

Bri2459 | November 12th, 2009 at 8:57 pm

Cant stand the new page been using yahoo for over ten years ill be on msn in a month if this garbage layout stays.

R. MacDonald | November 13th, 2009 at 11:02 am

Dear Yahoo. Please do what Coke did in the 80’s when they switched to New Coke and realized what an idiotic decision that was. Although it took longer then it should have they then realized their mistake and brought back Coke Classic. Why mess with a winning formula unless you want to decrease market share, reduce revenue, and alienate customers?

sybil | November 14th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

I do not like the new homepage. It’s very annoying. My major complaint, there’s too much interference when the arrow/cursor moves over several key subjects written on the left hand side of the yahoo page, visuals keep popping up. I don’t think that was well thought out. Many times you are not conscience about your cursor navigating over several words. You just move it all over to get where you want to go and the pop ups slows the navigation down. Maybe you need to size down the visual box. Also, the list on the right side of the page is too long. Too many options/choices. It should be more tailored or key subjects should be separated i.e. yahoo messenger, weather, horoscope, etc. and put into a graphically done category of their own, similar to yahoo classic. Important and regular used subjects should not be clumped in subjects i.e. hot jobs, etc. And don’t force people to keep something when they already had a good thing going with yahoo classic.

Tim | November 14th, 2009 at 6:50 pm

New page design stinks, reminds me of something Microsoft would do. keep classic view.

Gary | November 15th, 2009 at 9:58 am

I, too, hate the new page and especially the annoying rollovers and popups. A new page should be customizable to make it work more efficiently, not more frustratingly! Time to look elsewhere.

DJ | November 15th, 2009 at 9:58 am

Looks like I am not the only one who hates the new Yahoo home page. With no options to return to Classic Yahoo my home page will be changed. Too bad Yahoo doesn’t listen to their customers. Your page designers got an idea stuck in their heads and won’t let it go. You lose Yahoo

Choices | November 15th, 2009 at 3:11 pm

Why force a change? Give me the option to choose — new page is NO good for me. Mouseover pop-ups are horrendous.

Some people really like the page — some people really DON’T like the page.

Format choice would be great.

Any instructions available for Firefox to show the old page would be greatly appreciated.

JC | November 15th, 2009 at 8:47 pm

Seriously we want Classic back. Many of us hate the pop ups when you roll over Sports etc. You click on sports, the pop up causes the pointer to move up to movies or messenger and you end up clicking into those links. Also, I hate having to move my pointer far left or right when I’m trying to read, the pop ups just get in the way of the headlines.

Please provide us with classic. I’m been with Yahoo from the beginning and now looking to go to GOOGLE full time. I don’t want to but this new page is too frustrating.

db | November 15th, 2009 at 9:28 pm

I HATE the new YAHOO homepage!!! WHY OH WHY cant we keep the classic if that is what WE want??? WHY shove the new one down our throats??WHY not let us choose??? why run a dictatorship like this? I hate manuevering and navigating this stupid new homepage BRING BACK THE CLASSIC!!!

S | November 16th, 2009 at 8:11 pm

Those rollover features are terrible. I’ve had Yahoo as my homepage for many years now but I’m switching my homepage.

Adios Yahoo! | November 17th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Proof yet again that “new” doesn’t always equate to better. I don’t need the aggravation of dealing w/ mouse over pop-ups and navigating away from the homepage is now much, much slower as is navigating between websites. I don’t know anything about the technology but I am certain this issue started at the same time I was no longer given the option of returning to “classic Yahoo!”. I naively communicated w/ the Yahoo! team to express my concern. Polite response however the bottom line is ‘it’s a done deal’. I will also be moving to a different homepage if for no other reason than for the principle of being forced into what I view as borderline malicious software built into the new Yahoo homepage.

Deb | November 18th, 2009 at 8:11 am

Stinks in every possible way. I like news, not ads. I hate the format, which seems to all users are alike. I liked being able to set my defaults once, not every time I visit the page. I liked not having to read a “Problem loading” message every time I retrieve my mail. Now it’s just a pain in the neck. It’s like a bad beta-dream!

Charles | November 30th, 2009 at 1:40 pm

Just to add my two cents – this new page is terrible. I have been a loyal Yahoo user for years but this page is a mess. Does anyone really want all these annoying rollovers?

It is sad. On my way to Google.

Charles

yann | December 6th, 2009 at 9:46 am

I hate the pop-ups when you scroll over or even close to left side bar..going back to old yahoo homepage or maybe another site.
Yahoo people: haven’t you already gotten enough complaints about this?…come on, get with it!!!!

J. Hughes | December 6th, 2009 at 7:46 pm

The New Yahoo! Home Page Is Annoying

I have been using Yahoo since Yahoo began, and I have to say that I really, really don’t like the new front page. The part that annoys me the most is the left-hand selections that suddenly explode into huge pop-up panes that almost cover the rest of the screen (did you all happen to try it out on 1024 x 768 notebook sized screens?). I’ve been dealing with it now for a while, and each time it happens it just chafes me to no end. I don’t want a web page jumping up in my face, I just want it to respond when I click on things.

I use Yahoo a lot, particularly for email (for which I’m grateful, thank you) and I can overlook the cutsie cartons and cheesy photos on the mail page. But I also rely on Yahoo! for a lot of my online news. Lately, however, I’ve been looking for alternatives. I am seriously considered dropping Yahoo!, after all these years, at least until someone can figure out how to make the home page less obnoxious.

Please get rid of the stupid pop-up panes. It looks amateurish, it does nothing to help the Yahoo! experience, and they are annoying.

George Clark | December 7th, 2009 at 3:47 pm

New Yahoo Home page is bad. Mouse over “flare ups” drive me crazy. I’ve used Yahoo for many years and this is really annoying.
Give us the option of the classic page, PLEASE.

George

andy | December 8th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

Carol has completely turned me off of yahoo forever. Im forced to use their email address until i find out what I have under the @yahoo.com email,then its permanently google from now on.
She seems to think changing things will bring in new users.. and its painfully obvious that you cant bring in new users, if old users are unhappy.
It all started with yahoo mail. They changed mail, but left us the option to use ‘classic’. However, they changed ‘classic’! You cannot change something and call it ‘classic’, its a basic rule.
Then we changed Yahoo News. Instead of giving the people that actually used this service, stories, they thought they would bring in teenagers by making it look like a myspace page.. Ridiculous graphics, oversized font, and a mixture of 9 different font sizes.
The dreadful yahoo homepage redesign is the final nail in the coffin. Who on earth, thought that a mouseover on every link on the left column of the page was a good idea?
Ive had yahoo set as my homepage for over 10 years, and last month, I finally went too my google.
Yahoo, you are killing yourself with the redesigns. If you cant keep people happy, good luck with the sponsors.

Mary Ann | December 18th, 2009 at 12:55 pm

I do not like the new home page. It is difficult to find things that were so easy to find before. I had a hard time finding compose and then when I did, I could not and still cannot find my address book. What a mess. Please return the old page to me.
Thank you

Tony in KY | December 21st, 2009 at 8:27 pm

The popups on the new site are some of the most annoying features I have ever encountered. I like the new look but the other crap that came with it needs to go because the seemingly random events are too frustrating.

nancy | December 22nd, 2009 at 5:22 pm

What a worthless rewrite… I no longer can see weather, email and news at a glance. Everything requires manipulation. So, why bother.

Chy | December 22nd, 2009 at 10:10 pm

mouse over pop ups have got to go. I am so annoyed with it I have changed my homepage to msn which is not exactly my cup of tea but it’s better then having all these pop ups flying all over the place if your mouse is at the wrong point of the page. Terrible new page. Really miss the old home page.

Mike | December 23rd, 2009 at 8:07 am

I have tried over and over again to stop the blue popup bar from coming up. I don’t want to sign in and customize my home page. you guys are so fixed on getting peoples information and what they are looking at and trying to direct them to your adds and it’s only turning them away. does anyone read this page ? I think not.

Here is a comment I would agree with
When you want to set the new Yahoo! as home for Firefox;
it gives you the drop down icon to drag onto home icon..the URL points to http://www.yahoo.com.

Now if you’ve chosen the new page version, the cookie should redirect to the new Metro version.

But; even tho you set it as home, it still shows ‘Make Y! your homepage’. I’m done trying fix this. maybe yahoo can sell a pop up blocker to make money

watermelon | December 24th, 2009 at 2:51 pm

yahoo, why did you take away the old page?im glad your proud of your new page,but it wouldnt have hurt to keep the old page.i guess its gone forever now…but next time you make a new homepage just keep the old one,it will give better feedback.so please yahoo…please

sylvia | January 12th, 2010 at 10:27 am

Get rid of the pop ups, soo annoying! If I want to sign up for something, I’ll go there, but don’t put it on my face every time I move my mouse!!! Lose them.

Ned Kelly | January 14th, 2010 at 11:41 am

I don’t like the new yahoo because:

I have to be careful where I hover or leave my mouse otherwise a page pops up and blocks out everything (extremely annoying).

Yahoo seems like they’re trying to get me to sign-in rather than surf ‘anonymously’ (they won’t allow customization for logical links on the page unless you’re signed in).

Jeff | January 18th, 2010 at 1:36 am

The new yahoo home page was fun for a day or two. I agree with all of the sentiments that if you can’t choose, or at least, turn off the annoying advertisement to try the new home page, it’s goodbye for me and many others. With all of the apps now to check yahoo mail remotely, why would I use this home page just to get badgered and annoyed? Better still, perhaps I should just drop yahoo mail as well, because their perennial project of a “new improved email” is still….a project. I am embarrassed for them. Move forward or move aside, Yahoo.

awa | January 22nd, 2010 at 8:58 am

i wish to go back to the new version of yahoo

matt | January 25th, 2010 at 12:00 pm

i can’t stand all the mouseover popups for the menu items, i tend to roam with the mouse and these popups keep getting in my way, and i have to close them everytime.

ugh

matt | January 25th, 2010 at 12:04 pm

others agree about the pop ups i can’t look at the page, i will try google too

i get so angry

matt | January 25th, 2010 at 12:07 pm

wow, i just set my home page to igoogle, what a relief. i didn’t realize how much stress those mouse overs were giving me, i’ve been avoiding reading the news and sports scores, email, etc. just because of that simple thing that could have been fixed,

sorry yahoo, google mail is next

arisnb | March 30th, 2010 at 1:09 am

nice design with new yahoo

Kashmir Travels | April 10th, 2010 at 5:43 pm

I adore new looks of Yahoo.

Gratisan | June 18th, 2010 at 1:11 am

i like the new look

Rumah Adhwa Herbal | August 2nd, 2010 at 2:22 am

i like it