Yahoo Inc. has rolled out a redesign for several popular sections of its website, including its home page. Yahoo puhsed out its first major redesign of its home page since May 2006 and plans to accommodate more material from rival services as the internet company tries to polish its tarnished franchise. At first glance users will see the trade mark red logo switching to purple and some finer usability with navigation and layout.  Yahoo is pitching this as a key step in their push to regain the momentum that it lost while being outwebbed by internet search rival Google Inc. and recent upstarts.

Boasting 500 million users worldwide, Yahoo is hoping to bounce back by becoming an even more indispensable vehicle for web surfers and advertisers. As part of that process, the Sunnyvale-based company has been spotlighting more content from other websites and extending its advertising network so it can run ads on more internet properties. The changes will enable Yahoo users to plant more mini-applications known as “widgets” on personalized versions of the home page. Yahoo also plans to open up its music section to rival services as  they recently switched gears on their music strategy. A few years back yahoo bought musicmatch and combined it with their yahoo music service but never caught a foothold in the dominated Apple itunes crazy market.

yahoo.com home page redesign in 2009