All the news is already out about the new Yahoo homepage, which was launched today and which you can try here.

It features customizable applications, from Yahoo and third-party developers like Facebook, as well as a cleaner look.

But, just in case you are not satisfied yet, here is the full press release on the new front page for Yahoo (YHOO):

New Yahoo! Homepage Lets People Make the Web Their Own

Consumers can now personalize their Yahoo! experience with the best of the Web; Customizable apps stay with you when you’re mobile

Sunnyvale, Calif.–July 21, 2009–Yahoo!® Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO) is launching a new homepage that brings together the best of the Web with the best of Yahoo! in a single destination across both PC and mobile screens. With the new Yahoo! homepage, people can easily add apps–from Yahoo! or virtually any other site on the Web–and access them from their computer or mobile devices so that their favorite content, services and experiences are always at their fingertips. The new Yahoo! homepage is available today in the U.S. at http://yahoo.com/try new and will roll-out in France, India, the UK, and on mobile devices over the coming week.

Today’s launch represents the most significant change to the Yahoo! homepage since the company’s inception. By enabling this level of personalization, Yahoo! allows people to get more done, faster, all in a single place. This launch is a major milestone in the Yahoo! Open Strategy, which seeks to mesh the Yahoo! experience with the best online content and services.

“People are living more of their lives online–in the U.S., the average person visits a staggering 85 sites a month*. Whether for the PC or a mobile device, Yahoo! is bringing greater simplicity and relevance to the way people experience the Web,” said Ari Balogh, executive vice president of products & chief technology officer. “By focusing on what people have told us they want, our new homepage is designed to help them stay on top of what is going on in their world, and in the rest of the world.”

The new Yahoo! homepage brings together the best tools and content from across the Web, combined with leading content and services from Yahoo! properties, to give people one place to access the people and things that matter to them most.

New features of the Yahoo! homepage include:

• My Favorites–People can easily choose from a dashboard of more than 65 apps to add directly to their homepage, including different email providers (AOL®, Gmail®, Yahoo! Mail), best of breed content sites (Barron’s®, NPR®, omg!, USA Today), popular social networking sites (Facebook® and MySpace®), and dozens of others. These apps give people the ability to preview, interact with, or navigate to their favorite sites from one easy check-in point.

• App Maker–Using technology developed by Yahoo!, people can easily create their own app on the fly by adding virtually any URL of their choice.

• Trend Setter–A new snapshot of trends, including the most popular searches, insights from Yahoo! Buzz, and fun facts from around the Web.

• PC to Mobile Sync (coming soon)–People will be able to continue their Yahoo! experience on the go with a more seamless PC to mobile integration. New apps added to the Yahoo! homepage on the PC can be added to the mobile homepage.

• More Personal News–Hyper-local news and the ability to toggle the news module to the top of the page offer easier ways to access the news that matters most.

• Social Updates–People can now share their current “status” with friends directly from the homepage, get visibility into what their friends are doing across the Web, and integrate with leading social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace.

“At Facebook, we’re focused on giving people more powerful ways to connect–whether that is on Facebook or other popular Web destinations,” said Ethan Beard, director of Platform Marketing, Facebook. “With the ability to now check your Facebook activity or update your status directly on the Yahoo! homepage, we’re making it easier for people to share with their friends as they explore their favorite places on the Web.”

All users in the United States can opt-in to experience the new Yahoo! homepage at http://yahoo.com/trynew, with local versions rolling-out in France, India, the UK and on mobile devices over the coming week. Additional global rollouts are planned, beginning in the next month. More enhancements to the Yahoo! homepage, including additional apps, will be added in the coming months.

Schrage confirmed his new job to BoomTown, right after he friended us on Facebook last night, using its new chat feature.

Way to go native quickly, Elliot!

The move to hire Schrage (pictured here) was announced to Facebook’s employees late this evening.

In a memo that BoomTown obtained (entire text below) to Facebook troops from India, where he is traveling, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said about the Schrage hire:

“This is a really important role for us and one that we’ve been trying to find the right person for a while. Elliot’s role will be critical to helping us scale based on our culture that values transparency, openness and honest internal communications.”

Valleywag said Schrage had interviewed for the job at Facebook in a post earlier today about the possibility of Schrage working there.

At Facebook, Schrage will report to Sheryl Sandberg, another top-level Google exec who was hired as COO by Facebook, which is seeking to beef up its management ranks.

Other Googlers who have recently moved to Facebook include: Ben Ling, who is Facebook’s director of platform product marketing and Ethan Beard, who is its business development director.

Schrage is a big name to defect to Facebook from Google (GOOG), a trend that is probably becoming irksome to its top execs.

But Google’s deep bench of execs are enticing to many companies, even as the burgeoning size of Google makes it harder to hold onto more entrepreneurial employees. In addition, Google can no longer offer as lucrative a stock package to its staff as start-ups can, even though most of those smaller companies are not likely to pay off.

With a $15 billion valuation, Facebook is a safer bet, but still has to prove its worth and remains a risky move for execs like Schrage.

Still, according to sources, he contacted Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg directly and did not go through Sandberg. When she left Google, as is typical for departing execs, Sandberg agreed not to solicit Google employees.

A Harvard-trained lawyer, Schrage had extensive public-policy experience before heading to Google two years ago, where he was in charge of the “company’s public-facing communications, including media relations, policy strategy and stakeholder outreach, as well as internal communications.”

He will have his work cut out for him at Facebook, which has already faced some PR snafus and vexing public policy issues, including controversy around privacy and advertising practices.

Sources said Schrage was interested in Facebook, because it was a company poised for explosive growth, much like Google in its early days. In addition, unlike Google, which has grown large, Schrage would have more of an ability to make an impact in arenas he favors like public policy.

Here is the text of Zuckerberg’s memo to Facebook employees about the hiring of Schrage (with start date and new email address missing), which was released tonight at 8:55 p.m. PDT:

Hey Everyone–

I’m writing from India to share with you the good news that Elliot Schrage will be joining our management team as VP Communications and Public Policy. In this role, he will be responsible for developing the key messages we want people to understand about our products, our business and the growing global importance of social networking and what we do. The goal here is to help people understand how the internet can strengthen people’s relationships. Elliot will direct our efforts to work with users, media, governments and other entities around the world to ensure that Facebook’s policies are transparent, responsive, effective and are recognized as being those things.

Elliot is joining us from Google where he has been their VP Global Communications and Public Affairs since 2005. At Google, he broadened the company’s messaging from a focus on only product PR to include all aspects of corporate, financial, policy, philanthropic and internal communications. Before that, he served as a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, a public policy think tank, as a professor at Columbia Business School and as SVP at Gap. Early on, he began his career as a Harvard-trained lawyer.

This is a really important role for us and one that we’ve been trying to find the right person for a while. Elliot’s role will be critical to helping us scale based on our culture that values transparency, openness and honest internal communications.

Elliot will be starting on __, although you may see him around the office before then. If you want to send him a note to congratulate him on joining, his email is __ and I’m sure he’d love to hear from you.

Mark

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.