Tomorrow, Yahoo will officially unveil the latest redesign of its homepage, an almost complete rejiggering of the look and feel of one of the most trafficked sites on the Internet.

The latest launch comes after about a half-dozen redesigns the homepage since Yahoo was founded, the last one in 2006.

You can read the full story of the new page here, but BoomTown thought it might also be instructive to take a look at what has come before it, seeing how the Yahoo (YHOO) front page has evolved since 1994.

Incredibly, that was 15 years ago.

Personally, I like 1994 and 1995, which were clean and clear with big font sizes, due to Yahoo positioning itself as a directory of the Web, although the 1995 logo and swirly buttons are wacky.

The one from 1997 is also an improvement, in the same list theme.

But in 2000, the whole page suddenly started bloating badly, with too much color and too many links.

Weight gain continued in 2002, and the page got even more colorfully confusing with ever-smaller font sizes in 2004.

The 2006 version was, thankfully, much simpler, but still a packed-out mess.

That new incarnation from the Silicon Valley icon, which you can see above, is a more back to the basics in style.

The latest launch, which Yahoo had previously said was coming in the fall, rolls out today for the hundreds of millions of users in the U.S. and will be extended to France, the U.K., Germany and India later this week.

Here are the screenshots of all the Yahoo pages in order, from 1994 to 2006 (click on the images to make them larger, and please excuse some blurriness–I got these shots from Yahoo):

1994:

1995:

1997:

2000:

2002:

2004:

2006:

Internet navigation browser plug-in maker Cooliris, which lets users “see” media on the Web in a more visual manner, has gotten $15.5 million in additional funding from its investors.

The new round includes Kleiner Perkins, Cooliris’s initial investor, as well as DAG Ventures, the Westly Group and T-Mobile’s T-Ventures.

Cooliris had already received $3 million two years ago from Kleiner.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based start-up is also releasing the latest upgrade to its 3-D “wall” software out of beta, which adds more online content from around the Web, including from social-networking sites like Facebook and from a user’s own hard drive.

The trend toward making the Web browser look like a television screen and navigating information more visually is increasing all over the Internet, from video services like Boxee to visually-oriented search services like Searchme.

“We’re trying to allow users to discover, navigate and consume more of the Web in the same amount of time, using visual means, than people do now through text links,” said Austin Shoemaker, Cooliris co-founder and CTO in an interview last week with BoomTown.

Launched last year with a plug-in called PicLens, Cooliris said that its software had been downloaded 10 million times and that it has three million active daily users. It also has a popular iPhone version of its software.

Here are two more Cooliris screenshots like the one above (click on any of them to make them larger):

The software giant has jokingly renamed it Omuk, which is Kumo spelled backwards.

No kidding, but BoomTown likes it better!

As I wrote about Kumo and Microsoft (MSFT) efforts to compete better with archrival Google (GOOG) in early March:

“Sources at Microsoft said the company has not yet decided whether it will keep the Kumo name, which sounds a little too much like that crazy dog from the Stephen King novel.”

Thus, I was heartened when I obtained this internal memo, sent suspiciously on April Fool’s Day.

The Bernie Madoff and “muk it” jokes are actually funny.

Here’s the screenshot (click on it to make it larger) and the memo:

From: Brian MacDonald
Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 5:16 AM
To: Search FTE’s
Subject: Yesterday’s brand leak

Based on all the mail I have been getting on the topic, I imagine most people have seen the blog posts from late yesterday leaking the new brand. Marketing has asked me to share some of the “why” behind the final brand decision, but everyone should know that we are still officially keeping a “no comment” stance on the leak. We shouldn’t be discussing the new brand name externally until after the official launch.

In picking the new brand, marketing tried to have a brand that resonated with power users. We want to increase our fanbase amongst the heaviest searchers and want to pick a brand that will support that. Google had the scientific/math term kind of savvy user appeal and we wanted something akin to that. One of the real clever product names of all time was the operating system Gnu, which stood for Gnu’s Not Unix, with the G not really standing for anything. Kind of quirky and kind of fun.

So this same kind of thinking was behind the brand name. So it was Kumo after all, but with a twist. Kumo was just our new brand spelled backwards. The new brand “Omuk” stands, gnu-like, for “Omuk means unlimited knowledge.” The phrase “unlimited knowledge” really resonated with focus groups as something they most wanted to achieve with a search engine. It is rare that you can get the brand promise so neatly tied directly to the brand name. It also ties in corporate wide with the Unlimited Potential group etc.

There is a lot of riffs marketing can do in advertising with “unlimited knowledge.” If you recall the Dreyer’s Ice Cream ads where they brought in people who said they were abducted by aliens etc. and then did the tagline “unbelievable product from an unbelievable spokesperson” etc., we can do something similar. For example, tying Bernie Madoff, Unlimited Chutzpah with Omuk, Unlimited Knowledge. That type of thing.

In testing, Omuk scored very high on attributes like “empowering”, “organized” and “warm/fuzzy.” Another key attribute was ease of spelling and Omuk did very well. There was some concerns that people might spell it ohmuk or omuck but that didn’t happen.

The final key feature for the brand was verbability. Here marketing is planning to go with a little ingenuity and drop the o and just push “muk it.” In ads they will get playful and have the actors talk about the joys of accessing unlimited knowledge by just “muking around”, etc. The hope is to generate a lot of word-of-mouth and free impressions on the internet the way that the very successful Bill and Jerry commercials did for Windows.

Below is a sample homepage screenshot with the new brand. Really looks great. This also has the latest thinking on default “scopes.”

–Brian

Here below are three screenshots of Microsoft’s internal test of a new search product called Kumo.

The long expected upgrade to the Live Search product from Microsoft (MSFT) is being tested for a public rollout later this year.

The blogosphere was a-twitter, literally, after a Twitter post by Powerset co-founder Barney Pell this past weekend, about a rebranding and updating of the search offering. (Microsoft acquired Powerset last year and Pell works on search strategy.)

Sources at Microsoft said the company has not yet decided whether it will keep the Kumo name, which sounds a little too much like that crazy dog from the Stephen King novel.

Maybe that’s the point, at least related to Google. (Chomp!)

In Japanese, actually, Kumo has two definitions–cloud and spider.

Microsoft has been trying to catch up in the search game by spending big-time after it failed to acquire Yahoo (YHOO) last year.

And it still wants to do a search deal with Yahoo, in order to make a dent in the market dominance of Google (GOOG).

Until then, of course, Microsoft must innovate. And, so far, Kumo seems to be an interesting effort with a clean and spare look.

But what do you think? Let me know in the comments.

Also, here is the memo from Microsoft search head Satya Nadella about it, urging all company employees to try it out and send feedback:

From: Satya Nadella
Sent: Monday, March 02, 2009 4:18 PM
To: Microsoft–All Employees (QBDG)
Subject: Announcement: Internal Search Test Experience

The Search team needs you. We’ve been working hard to improve our search service and want to share the progress we are making with you. We are launching a new test program called kumo.com for employees to try and provide feedback. Kumo.com exists only inside the corporate network, and in order to get enough feedback we will be redirecting internal live.com traffic over to the test site in the coming days. Kumo is the codename we have chosen for the internal test.

In spite of the progress made by search engines, 40% of queries go unanswered; half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks; and 46% of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes. These and many other learnings suggest that customers often don’t find what they need from search today.

We believe we can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks. During the test, features will vary by country, but you’ll see results organized in a way that saves you more time. An explorer pane on the left side of results pages will give you access to tools that help you with your tasks. Other features like single session history and hover preview help accomplish more in search sessions.

Your Next Search…

To get started, visit kumo.com or click one of the samples below to see how it’s possible to find the right results more easily:

· Audi S8
· Taylor Swift
. Bose Lifestyle 48

You can also set your search defaults to test site using the instructions here.

Your Feedback is Critical

As employees, you are some of our most informed users and our toughest critics, and we highly value your input and feedback to help us build a better service. You have been an important voice in our efforts, and the feedback you’ve sent us since the company meeting has been amazing.

When you visit kumo.com, at the bottom right corner of the each page you’ll see a feedback badge. We ask that each time you use the test site, click the feedback badge and take a moment to answer four quick and simple questions. Feel free to reach out to give us extra feedback directly on our blog and by mailing sfeed. For answers to common questions make sure to see our FAQ.

We are committed to rapid innovation and improvement. Please give the test site a try, rate the results and let us know what you think.

Satya

Here are the three screenshots too (click on the images twice to make them larger):

Taylor Swift

Audi S8

Bose Lifestyle 48

As part of its ongoing rejiggering of its social-networking offerings, AOL is formally rolling out its expected Lifestream platform today, with a new “timeline” depicting a user’s online life in a streaming horizontal calendar called a Lifestory.

(See image above; click on it to make it larger.)

The moves are the latest made by AOL’s People Networks related to its Bebo social site, which this column previously reported about in December.

AOL is hoping its efforts will focus users more on Bebo, which it bought for $850 million in March, a high price that has been controversial both inside and outside Time Warner (TWX), which owns AOL.

While Bebo is one of the larger social networks, it is still not popular in the U.S. and lags well behind leaders like Facebook.

Lifestream will first be available on AOL’s Bebo and include updates from friends on Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and Del.icio.us. Lifestream can also be used by brands, celebrities, bands and companies.

Lifestory uses a zooming technology to look at various times, using text, music, videos and photos, and can be done with many contributors. It also includes a feature called Social Slider that allows a user to have more granular filtering control over who sees what in Lifestory.

AOL had previously launched other social-networking features, such as Social Inbox, a one-stop destination with aggregated social feeds from across the Web, multiple email accounts and media recommendations.

AOL also has an upcoming service called Site Social, with plans to use its advertising platform to help monetize the offering.

Many large Web portals like AOL have recently rolled out by large Web players like Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO). All are attempts to offer a competing product to the most popular social-networking sites, Facebook and the News Corp. (NWS) unit, MySpace, where users have flocked. (News Corp. is the owner of this Web site.)

Those two companies have also been making moves of late to allow consumers to aggregate their disparate piles of online information through connective offerings that allow them to pool all kinds of Web content and communications in one place.

AOL’s People Networks unit, which includes Bebo, AIM and ICQ, has an overall audience of 92 million, according to a recent comScore (SCOR) survey.

Here are some screenshots of the AOL pages with the new features:

Moviefone Lifestory

VH1 Lifestory

Social Inbox

User Profile

User Profile 2

In its ongoing renovation of its offerings–last month it began rolling out a new homepage–Yahoo is unveiling a new online calendar, with a passel of new bells and whistles, to a small group of users worldwide.

At first, the beta–current users can register to try it here–will take place in the United States, Brazil, India, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

Overall, it is a good-looking, simple and clean design–that will eventually be extended to all of Yahoo’s 8.1 million calendar users worldwide.

It is also Yahoo’s first attempt at leveraging and integrating technology from its $350 million acquisition of open-source email and calendaring company Zimbra just over a year ago.

And, incredibly, although Yahoo’s is the top online calendar in the world, it has been 10 years since the Internet giant updated it.

That lack of innovation has resulted in major inroads in recent years by newer entrants like Google, whose calendar launched with more modern features, like color-coding, easy sharing and drag-and-drop functionality.

With its renovation, which is based on open standards, the updated calendar from Yahoo (YHOO) now has these kinds of features and also works more seamlessly with Yahoo’s powerful email product, Yahoo! Mail, which has 278 million users.

The new Yahoo calendar is built on the Zimbra platform, which uses Ajax functionality in its online calendars and iCalendar (iCal) and CalDAV3 standards.

That makes it interoperable with other online calendar services, including those from Mozilla, Apple, Microsoft, Time Warner’s AOL and Google.

One of the cooler features is the ability to zoom-in and zoom-out from a monthly wall calendar view to a single event.

In addition, Yahoo’s new calendar can integrate pictures from its Flickr photo community and also has a “to-do” list.

As the beta is rolled out further in the coming months, Yahoo will add additional synching and event discovery features.

I talked about all this today with Yahoo SVP Scott Dietzen, who came to the company with the Zimbra acquisition and now is in charge of all communications products at Yahoo.

Here is the video interview I did with him:

And here are the screenshots of the new calendar, along with one of the old calendar, for comparison (click on images to make them larger):

The old main Yahoo calendar

The new main Yahoo calendar

The “zoom” feature

The integration with Flickr

The Upcoming.org integration