Yahoo refresh paves way for native advertising play

Yahoo has unveiled an overhaul of its homepage with a greater emphasis on design, easier navigation and personalisation, as it prepares to make native advertising formats available on the portal in 2014. 

Yahoo-HomePage-460

The new-look homepage is to be rolled out across Europe and will be made available to Yahoo’s desktop, smartphone and tablet users. The new format contains a “real-time news feed” with an “endless feed of articles”, alongside its staple Yahoo Weather, Finance and Flickr properties (see image above).

In a blog post detailing the update, Noelia Fernández Arroyo, Yahoo VP Media, EMEA, says: “The new Yahoo experience which is personal, intuitive and optimized for easy, everyday consumption of our daily habits whether we are browsing the top stories, checking our email, or checking the weather.” 

A Yahoo spokeswoman told Marketing Week the update to the homepage format was a precursor to Yahoo introducing native ad formats – or “stream ads” – that more closely resemble editorial content on the homepage from next year.

This is set to play a key role in the online portal’s bid to woo European advertisers from 2014 onwards, after introducing such formats in the US earlier this year.

Yahoo has already prepared a list of protocols brands eager to buy such ad formats must adhere to, and is also participating in the IAB-led Native Advertising Task Force which aims to introduce best practice procedures in order to ward-off external regulation. 

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