The content-heavy Yahoo homepage is reportedly going to be scaled back, which would mark the first layout changes since Marissa Mayer took over as CEO three months ago.
"Yahoo! is continually developing and testing new product concepts in an effort to offer the most delightful experiences for users and advertisers," a Yahoo representative told TechRadar. "We don't have anything new to announce at this time."
But a source close to Yahoo sent an "authentic" screengrab of a revamped Yahoo homepage to Business Insider, which said "a new version is slowly being rolled out into the wild."
If true, the most convenient design tweak is that the search bar would move with the user as he or she scrolls down. This would put greater emphasis back on Yahoo as a search portal.
Yahoo's logo is also smaller in the top left corner. This is a popular trend among today's websites that put less importance on corporate signage and more focus on actual functionality.
Yahoo's cleaned-up section navigation sidebar
Also downsized in the screengrab are the many links that litter Yahoo's soon-to-be-replaced left sidebar.
Twelve essentials like mail, news, finance, sports, and movies are still there. But users will have to click a "more" link to see additional, less popular sections like games, dating, jobs, messenger, and music.
The links are also listed in order of importance rather than alphanumerically.
The new layout snapshot doesn't reveal whether or not this has lead to the inability to customize these section links. The current Yahoo homepage layout allows logged-in users to add, subtract, and reorder the links.
Yahoo redesign includes new modules
Surprisingly, the current Yahoo design doesn't have a weather module, so the new look will supply forecast-deprived users with a quick three-day forecast on the left.
Underneath of the weather moedule, users will be able to easily read their horoscope thanks to a grid of astrology signs.
But making room for the weather and astrology modules is the helpful Trending Now set of links, which move from the top right to the lower left, under the curtailed Yahoo section links.
The problem with this move, besides its new, less obvious location, is that the Trending Now links are limited to 10 characters thanks to a reduced width. It's up to you to guess who "Casey Anth...," "Michael Vi...," and "Bruce Will..." are.
More possible Yahoo homepage changes
There are at least two ways in which Yahoo's new homepage changes to expand, not contract, the amount of information put out there by its current form.
First, the middle of the homepage includes a second photo-friendly large story below the familiar rotating five-story module.
Second, the remainder of the homepage news includes a one or two-sentence description, as if you were visiting Google News. Previously, each news item was just a simple headline.
There's no release date, but if the rumor holds true, the 170 million people who visit Yahoo sites everyday should see the mostly positive changes soon enough.
Via Business Insider
