Yahoo took a major step to reimagine and redesign its web and mobile experiences from ecommerce and email, to search, purchases and news. The Verizon Media company is stepping up to become a major platform by personalizing and monetizing its properties at a time when Google, Facebook and others are pulling back.
Beginning this month, the Verizon Media company will launch a personalized opt-in experience across all its properties, complete with alerts for individual users such bill and expense notifications, news, emails, as well as details on deals based on browsing and searches, deliveries for purchases, and to-do lists.
Joanna Lambert, head of consumer at Verizon Media, said Yahoo will conduct tests with users during the next several months, giving them the opportunity to try the new experience through Yahoo Mail.
“We’re working with customers to find out what they want and love,” Lambert said. “When users log into their Yahoo Mail accounts, they will see a prompt to opt-in and try the next evolution of Yahoo.”
The first generation of this redesign is for Yahoo Mail users, but that’s not to suggest that in the future the integration won’t include other email servers, she said.
As the advertising industry and content providers tighten their grip on sharing consumer data based on privacy concerns, Yahoo, with help from its parent company, Verizon Media, found a way to personalize the experience for each opted-in user.
“The experience you will have will be different than the experience someone else will have,” Lambert said, adding that it is based on the individual person’s interests and experiences across finance, news, search and more. In fact, Yahoo News will reach out to its channel on TikTok with 1.1 million followers.
Yahoo aggregates content from more than 1,000 global partners, along with produce it’s own globally.
Users can search for whatever content aligns with their interests, but when they visit their Yahoo page, they will see a carefully curated dashboard of content, utilities, tools and resources aimed at making their life easier.
Despite privacy concern, the reimagined Yahoo experience remains completely personalized, because users have complete control and opt-in and out capabilities on desktop, mobile and through the Yahoo Mail app.
Yahoo created a Privacy Center, a hub that describes its policies, consumers rights and provides access to the tools to control data across all of its platforms. Consumers have the controls to opt-out in compliance with the CCPA and to manage their personalized experience. All U.S. and International consumers are provided the same tool, information, and controls through a privacy dashboard.
Lambert said building out the ecosystem remains in its early stages. As part of the beta, Yahoo is testing advertising and other ways to monetize its redesign.
Tests are being done serving premium display ads. The strategy, however, focuses on integrating ways to monetize the experience through other means such as content and services rather than relying on native and display advertising, as well search content and ads through its partnership with Microsoft Advertising.
For example, Walmart, along with several other premium partners, will create an integration on the site through Groceries.
The strategy should lead to increases in subscriptions, products and commerce. For example, users will have the ability to go through the Yahoo Shopping page for easy transactions of their favorite items, and have access to Yahoo’s content and subscriptions. Search tools remain the same.
Monetization also will include commerce. “We’ll be working with Rebecca Minkoff, the fashion designer,” Lambert said. “We’re thinking about different ways for users to transact based on their interests. It might be fashion. It might be groceries or specific ingredients because you’re planning on cooking a meal. It also might be around gaming and betting.”
Yahoo will support the ecommerce transactions.