A great number of changes have been brewing at Yahoo, the still relatively new home of Google executive turned Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer. According to sources from All Things D, the latest shake-up is a redesigned look which appears to draw inspiration from Windows 8's Metro UI: large, differently-sized tiles which scroll left and right.
Purportedly, Yahoo is still tweaking the details, but the screenshot above is similar to other such recent Yahoo design leaks. Notable modifications expected to make it into the final design include new icons, a reduction in the number of text links, more social integration and an increase in personalization options.
In addition to Yahoo's impending tile-centric design, the site will also be changing where and what forms of ads make it onto the home page. In particular, sources claim Yahoo will replace several of its 300x250 ad spots with larger 300x600 modules. The company is expected to boldly remove (or relocate) its highest-positioned advertisement, keeping the head of its search portal clutter-free. Yahoo's frequently visited web portal racks up 4.4 billion page views per month, so any changes made to advertising could generate a huge impact on site revenue. Let's hope the changes are for the better.
The change-up is known internally as "Project Homerun" – a rather conspicuously optimistic label, but one that will hopefully reinvigorate Yahoo. Mayer follows a long list of short-term CEOs, from under which Yahoo floundered.
Aside from the home page refresh, other changes during Mayer's reign include Yahoo employees ditching Blackberry smartphones and wrangling in fresh talent for COO, CFO and legal counsel positions – all of which are former Google employees, interestingly.