As we’ve reported, CEO Carol Bartz is already shaking things up at Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO)—from re-organizing teams to killing under-performing products. In a report released this morning, Barclay’s analyst Doug Anmuth provides us a peek at the progress Bartz is making with with the home-page redesign, including a look at current version. Screenshots of the new homepage, which Anmuth expects to launch before the end of the year, follows after the jump, but first some highlights from his report:

—Third-party applications enhance offerings: On the new homepage, major publishers will have their content available through applications that users can access through a Personal Assistant rail on the left side of the page, he notes. Users will also be able to create mini-apps for smaller publishers not already on the site, though he didn’t specify where these would be located. 
—Increasing ad impressions: When a user scrolls over the app to see the third-party content, an ad is also included—and Yahoo keeps all the revenue from that. Management told Anmuth that testing had showed a 10 percent to 20 percent increase in ad impressions on the homepage from the third-party apps. He expects this to grow as users become more comfortable using them.
—On the homepage users will also be able to update their status on many social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace.   
—New layout enables Yahoo to better promote featured stories on the homepage.

Snapshots after the jump…

(Click To Enlarge)




(Source: Barclays Capital)

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