Yahoo begins website redesign

Yahoo has started an overhaul of its website and will be choosing surfers at random to give feedback on its redesign.

The redesign will put surfers in the driving seat - already a small percentage of visitors have been asked for their impression of the search giant's applications and how information is presented on its main page.

As part of one change, Yahoo introduced a new tool to its search facility this week which lets you listen to full-length tracks for free.

Yahoo last redesigned its homepage in May 2006. It says that it is one of the most visited homepages on the net with more than 300 million users a month.

Unlike Google's homepage, essentially an empty page with a search box, Yahoo's combines elements that lets you choose what you want to see.

The new page combines what the Yahoo calls "broadcasting" elements, which are the same news and resource links that everyone will see. Combined with this is what Yahoo terms "narrowcasting" - highly customised homepages made popular by My Yahoo, iGoogle, BBC and others.

"We are going to put what matters to you most at your fingertips," said Tapan Bhat, senior vice president and the man charged looking after Yahoo's 'front doors' which include Yahoo.com, MyYahoo and the Yahoo toolbar.

Less than one per cent of Yahoo users will be asked to take part in the redesign. As of yet no date has been set for a full roll-out, but the last overhaul took six months.

www.yahoo.co.uk