In contrast to the old Yahoo page of the late 1990's, today's modern Yahoo page is loaded with information through images, hypertext, advertisements, and videos, all of which are scattered across the page in a seemingly disorganized fashion compared to it's predecessor which was just a page made up of an alphabetized list of categories. But when looking at today's yahoo homepage instead of being overwhelmed and lost in the amount of text and imagery, the user is able to navigate their way through the information, scroll through the numerous lists, desifer the images thrown infront of them, and find exactly what they are looking for.
How is this possible?
As discussed by Burnett, Robert, and Marshall in their book Web Theory: An Introduction we learn that all modern day media aesthetics are derived from previous forms of media. When looking at the Yahoo home page it is easy to see its resemblance to a Sunday morning newspaper's front page. Our society has been trained for more than a century on how to decipher the information in a newspaper so the switch to similar displayed information via cyberspace could be seen as an easy transition.
When looking at the yahoo hompage one may even ask themselves why didin't it start out this way? why did it look the way it did?
This is due to the technology that was available at the time. Burnett, Robert, and Marshall also discussed the evolution of the interface and how innovative mechanisms through the computer such as the mouse brought on the easy to use desktop associated with modern day computers. Internet at the start of yahoo was much more basic of a connection than what it is today. Graphics were not transmitted well and dial up was slow, but through the innovations of technology we are able to digest the maximum amount of information as needed.
with modern day computer components that make the using of a computer easier comes more challenging interfaces to navigate.
Work Cited
Burnett, Robert, and Marshall P. David. Web Theory: An Introduction. 1st ed. New York, NY: Routledge, 2003. 81-104. eBook.
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You are right about technology but then again Yahoo! also is rhetorical in default and organization--seemingly telling you what is important, right?
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