• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, May 17, 2006

Yahoo unveiled a redesigned home page on Tuesday in a further attempt to popularize its services with ever more efficient, responsive, and personalized interfaces. Without leaving the new home page, for example, users can conduct cursory checks of their mail, instant messenger accounts, Yahoo's Launchcast Internet radio service, local weather and traffic reports, and movie listings.

Yahoo's search bar--which now includes Yahoo's popular Answers feature--has been given top billing above other content offerings, which can likewise be explored without leaving the home page, through the use of AJAX and DHTML technologies. Advertisers will be happy to see that Yahoo's front-page ad rectangle has nearly doubled in size.

A new feature, Yahoo Pulse, gives users a look at the most popular trends, music, videos, photos, people, and opinions circulating throughout the Web. Users can also choose from five color palettes to decorate their pages, as well as a narrow or wide page layout.

"We're committed to making complex technologies like email, instant messaging, and search more powerful and easier to use for everybody," wrote Havi Hoffman on the Yahoo Search blog. Yahoo last revamped its home page in September 2004.

Separately on Tuesday, Yahoo Finance announced a dynamic "Badges" application for bloggers so they can display a select company's financials on their sites. A company's quotes, charts, and news on a blogger's Yahoo Financial Badge adjusts automatically and in real time.