Yahoo takes cue from Facebook in website revamp

Aims at making the web portal more modern and attractive to users

Yahoo is rolling out a revamped look for its website, aimed at making the web portal more modern and attractive to users.

“We wanted it to be familiar but also wanted it to embrace some of the modern paradigms of the Web,” Chief Executive Marissa Mayer said on NBC’s Today show on Wednesday.

“One thing that I really like is this very personalised newsfeed, it’s infinite and you can go on scrolling forever,” she said.

In a blog post, Mayer said the company will begin introducing the changes over the next few days, with more changes and improvements expected in the coming months. The endless newsfeed containing stories, pictures or video is similar to feeds on Facebook as well as Twitter.

Mayer also said in her blog that the website would feature newly designed applications, allow users to log in with their Yahoo or Facebook IDs and would work well on smartphones and tablets.

Yahoo is one of the world’s most-visited online properties, but revenue has declined in recent years amid competition from Google and Facebook.

Yahoo has also been beset by internal turmoil that has resulted in a revolving door of CEOs.

Mayer, 37, took over after a tumultuous period at Yahoo in which former CEO Scott Thompson resigned after less than six months on the job over a controversy about his academic credentials, and during which Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigned from the board and cut his ties with the company.

Yahoo’s 2012 revenue was $5 billion. It has been flat year over year, off from some $6.3 billion in 2010.