Launching in the UK next week, the site uk.buzz.yahoo.com enables people to discover the most popular content online.
The most popular articles and videos then shape the headlines on Yahoo!'s new homepage and Yahoo! drives users to content on the publishers' sites.
Tapan Bhat, senior vice-president of integrated consumer experience at Yahoo, said the new tool changes the ‘pivot point' of Yahoo! from the company to the consumer, which will benefit advertisers.
Yahoo! claims its new homepage, launching as an opt-in trial in the UK, will offer brands additional advertising opportunities alongside an apps gallery and display ads.
It is trialling a content optimisation engine, which will let users personalise their favourite news settings to view more ‘fun' or ‘serious' news.
The company said it would not advertise alongside news content from The Guardian, The Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Rival Google has been criticised for attempting to profit from publishers' content but has denied claims it plans to launch advertising on Google News in the UK.
The new homepage lets people add their own favourite links to the site so that they can view Facebook, Time Out or other websites without leaving Yahoo!
Yahoo! said it would support the apps platform on its homepage in the autumn, which would allow it to consider introducing micro-payments for third party apps.
The new homepage will be replicated on mobile next week.
Yahoo! Mail is also being revamped to include more social features, bringing the Buzz content into email and letting people add status updates. Yahoo! is also letting people display photos sent to their email in a gallery which can be edited and shared with friends.
.jpg)
.jpg)