Yahoo announces overhaul of its online services

by Steven Mostyn - Sep 17 2010, 16:18

This week we’ve seen Twitter refresh its design and features, we’ve seen Microsoft roll out the official beta of its critically acclaimed Internet Explorer 9 browser, and now Internet pioneer Yahoo has announced it’s getting in on the overhaul action.

According to a product roadmap released on Thursday, Yahoo will begin rolling out a host of updates during the autumn, with the likes of Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Search first on its list of most-deserving services.

Yahoo Mail should be given the once over in the next few weeks and will apparently offer its 280 million users access to a “cleaner, sleeker” interface and easier feature navigation through the inbox.

The same design will be applied across PC systems, smartphone handsets, tablet computing devices, and other mobile platforms.

According to Yahoo it is also introducing improved technology through its data centres in order to give Yahoo Mail a significant performance boost where speed is concerned.

When it comes to Yahoo Search, users can expect to receive “more visually compelling search results that let you discover information and be entertained all on one search result page.”

Yet, despite the changes, Yahoo will still have its work cut out for it in dragging back the 72 percent market share dominance currently held by Google (Experian Hitwise).

Much like Microsoft Bing, which now powers Yahoo Search, the changes will have a particular effect on entertainment and news results, offering up usual text-based search content alongside related images, video clips, articles, events, ratings and even social networking elements.

Other services expected to be given an invigorating jolt by Yahoo include instant messaging, applications for mobile devices, along with content-delivery platforms such as Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, and Yahoo Sports.

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