During my time at Yahoo! homepage launches were a big part of my life – this is the fourth one I’ve been involved with in one way or another and so I’ve seen first hand how it’s changed and the reasoning behind the changes.

A brief historical functional overview of the Yahoo! homepage, which up until at least the start of 2009 was the single most visited web page on the planet, goes something like this – and in many ways mirrors the history of the web:

• At the start, it was all about links in the directory, which dominated the page
• Then the directory became searchable
• Rather than drive traffic to competitors, Yahoo! started building and acquiring its own products like Yahoo! Mail and Finance
• Yahoo! started publishing latest news on its homepage
• With so many people on the site daily, the media value of the page soared. Yahoo! led the way in offering advertisers truly unique opportunities on its homepages worldwide
• As the web broadened, Google Search became ‘the killer app’ – portals no longer could offer the same standard as the pure plays, for example, everyone knows eBay – but do you remember Yahoo! Auctions?
• Entry points to the web changed. The Hotmail homepage was a more valuable destination than the MSN homepage, because more people started their web sessions there. Internet toolbars became so important that companies like Microsoft started to embed search functionality into the chrome of the browsers and desktop.
• Thus, a page like yahoo.co.uk had to have value as a product in its own right. Editorial engagement became more important as homepages became the place to find out about what cool stuff was happening on and offline. The directory disappeared.
• Web2.0 and social networking took off. The web became a more customisable place. Mobile phones became more important as a platform. The personal assistant on the last version of the Y! homepage showed where front page evolution was heading.

And now, in 2009, we have a Yahoo! homepage that allows users to see the news headlines from the Guardian alongside its own news product. A page that actively encourages users to add their favourite sites to the left hand nav bar rather than big up its own portal offering. Yahoo! has recognised that setting your online status is a key part of any user’s identity when going for a surf on a highly personalisable web – even though its as easy to update your Facebook account from the Y! page as it is your own Y! profile.

Is this simply Yahoo! admitting defeat? I don’t think so. I think this is a good strategic move on their part, allowing users to create their own ‘starting point’ on the web. If Yahoo! ever had a raison d’etre, wasn’t this always it? Is the new homepage evolution or revolution? Let us know what you think.

The new home page still does everything that Yahoo! has always done well – pointing users to fresh and interesting content and brilliant products such as Y! Finance and Mail – but also recognises the fact that the Internet has moved on from the dominance of portals. That in itself gives every web publisher the opportunity to think about how it can leverage Yahoo!’s audience to drive engagement in its own products. If you want to think about how that could work for your business then drop us a line.

Based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

I would have also have thought that the BBC’s intention to make its content available to other UK based websites isn’t something it’s chosen to do. I’d say it’s something in which it has no choice. What it gives away free to the big four groups it has done today, surely it has to do for everyone – nationals, regionals, TV, radio and mobile. If I start up miggle news tomorrow, surely I’d be entitled to it too?

Don’t get me wrong. I think the BBC is magic. Its content is fantastic and it does some brilliant things online. It’s got a fantastic, well known and trusted brand. We all own it, we all know where to find it. That to me is all there should be to it.

In terms of content there is only really, in the UK, one credible competitor to the BBC. The newspapers that are associated with that group, who’ve recently suggested that their content online is something they might charge for, were not included in today’s announcement. Why is that I wonder?

Based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.

After all, lets face it, we Brits are not the most resilient bunch when illness strikes. I can think of plenty of times in my working career where I’ve been able to see the tumbleweed blow through offices, as a mass bunch of sickies get thrown, with staff self diagnosing the sniffles as flu. So, it’s key you have a plan to cope. Many businesses will have a good BCP in place. However, if you are reading this thinking ‘What’s BCP?’ then read on. And then when you’ve finished, go and see your boss and ask him how your company’s BCP will handle a drought of fit and able bodies in the office. If he/she looks at you blankly, then here’s an opportunity for you to score a few brownie points.

In layman’s terms BCP, or Business Continuity Planning, is all about what processes you have in place to address the fact that what can go wrong, will go wrong. Because worst case scenarios rarely happen, few businesses take the time to consider what they’ll do when disaster strikes. A solid BCP plan should cover many areas – and how to cope when your business is suffering from staff shortages due to sickness is definitely one.

I remember in a past life putting the basics of BCP in place when we realised that the Queen Mother would not go on for ever. Operation Fishbone it was called, Her Majesty having had what was past form for choking on bones and us being aware that the next one could be one heimlich manourvre too far. As it was, she soldiered on for another six months, but a few days after we’d devised the plan, two planes flew into the World Trade Center. We were well prepared to cover the event editorially. Judging by the speed at which our competitors sites went down, we were probably one of the few that were.

The point of this little anecdote is this: Even if you think the panic over swine flu has been blown out of all proportion, that’s not a reason not to think about BCP. After all, a process that works for the flu will also cover you when snow falls in London again and no one can get to the office. This winter just gone, the current clients for whom we provide a BCP service via migglepublishing were able to pick up the phone and know that we’d be able to kick in with coverage when the bad weather ground everything to a halt.

We’re able to provide that coverage because our clients see the value of investing some time and money into ensuring continuity of service and they can thus rest assured that there are people across various locations who have access to publishing tools, training in how to use them and a good understanding of what sort of content works for your business – these FAQs will give you some idea of how that process works. If you want to find out more about how we can help you with being a cog in your BCP machine just get in touch. And if you don’t, be prepared anyway. Nothing stays the same for ever – its the nature of impermanence. Disaster is imminent. Make sure you can cover it, not be swept up by it.

Based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.