Yahoo has a very pretty and functional homepage since a few months now. The page features an improved interface and the ability to add and view custom sections making it suitable to be used as a start page.
A number of modules are listed on the left side that can be personalized the way you like. By default, if you are not logged in, the page guesses your location and presents information that may be relevant to you. In India, it shows Cricket and Bollywood news up top in addition to other useful links.
Once you are logged in you can call the page "My Yahoo" because it show you customized content that you might have configured or from whatever it knows about you. The layout of the page is clean, easy to use and makes it a really good choice for a start page for your browser.
Let's see how you can configure it to suit you and add your Facebook and other social networks on Yahoo.
Yahoo! realizes that Facebook is the most popular social network and makes things easy for you by providing a module for you to use Facebook on Yahoo. Hover over it and you can configure it to work with your Facebook account. My Yahoo would then pull in the required feeds from Facebook and also allows you to interact with it.
To add Facebook on Yahoo:
- Hover over the Facebook link in the Left column on Yahoo, click on "Quick Overview"
- You will be redirected to login with your Yahoo ID first if you are not already logged in.
- After logging in with the Yahoo ID, you have to click on the Facebook link again on the left hand side and this time sign in with your Facebook login details. While a reputed company like Yahoo wouldn't play with your login details, still if you are skeptical, you would have to pass on this one as there is no other way a third party will be able to get your protected Facebook updates without authorization.
- Facebook will now confirm if you want to authorize My Yahoo to connect with Facebook, Click Connect and you will be on your way.
Next time you hover on the Facebook link on your Yahoo page, you will be shown updates from your Facebook. This is the view that you will see:
You can now check status updates of your Facebook friends, comment on their statuses, update your own status and do almost all those cheeky things you do on Facebook.
Removing Facebook From Yahoo!
What goes up shall come down. This is especially important (though not apparent at first) when deciding to use a web application. You might love the way the Yahoo! webpage looks and works today, however you cannot be certain that it will always stay the same way. So you should always plan your escape route first before committing personal information to anybody on the web. You don't want to be locked down into using a product just because you have all your data/personal information with them. If a site seems like it functions this way, you should seriously reconsider what you are committing to.
In our present scenario though, both Yahoo! and Facebook provide a way to dust off your hands and walk away (you might want to read the Privacy Policies for more details though). To remove Facebook from My Yahoo! you can either click on Options > Settings from the Facebook overview on the Yahoo page.
Or you can unauthorize Yahoo! from accessing your Facebook data from within Facebook. In fact this works with all the applications you use in Facebook or any third party tools that you may be using to interact with Facebook.
To do so, click on Account and then on Application Settings. You will then see applications that you have used with your account. You can then Edit Settings for each application which controls the permissions granted to the application. Or you can click on the cross sign next to the application to remove it from accessing your account altogether.
In addition to Facebook there are many other modules that you can configure and use on the Yahoo homepage. It displays the default modules according to your location but you can find additional modules not listed there in by clicking on the "Add +" button.
What are your favorite applications for Facebook? What different modules do you use on your My Yahoo page? Share them with us in the comments.