Yahoo.com

http://www.yahoo.com/

Yahoo has recently surpassed Google in user satisfaction according to this article:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-08-14-yahoo-google-satisfaction_N.htm
Although I use both sites for email, I'm a huge fan of Google's super-simple interface and haven't been to the main Yahoo page in what seems like years, so I decided to give it a whirl and see what all the fuss was about.

Intended audience
Anyone who desires a web portal, a starting point for their web browsing activities. Possibly anyone who needs a search engine as well.

Usefulness of content
This is mostly fluff for browsing. Some items that jump out at me are: "Can the Web find Fossett?", "Why online college is cool", and "Mobile Mania: Popular Cell Phones". Who's Fossett? Anyway, it's obvious that the mission here is not efficient searching; rather, it's browsing and integration of web activities. From that perspective, the content is fantastic. Major areas of interest (referred to as Yahoo Services) such as sports, jobs, and personals, are listed in the navigation bar on the left-hand side. News headlines and the list of top searches give current topics for browsing. Email, chat, and weather are available here without even having to click on anything - you just move your mouse over an area of the main page. If I were browsing for just about anything, this would be a great starting point for it, which is exactly the point.

Another important aspect of this is that the content is relatively tame, as opposed to the AIM Today home page (http://aimtoday.aim.com/) where the headlines tend to feature trashy celebrity scandals. I could picture my mother-in-law using Yahoo! without being offended, so it works well for a general audience.

Consistency of design
The design is very consistent, friendly but busy. Functionally distinct sections of the web page are well-defined by boxes and header bars. Friendly icons break up the text and tie the look together. Tabs within the page work exactly as you would expect: only the area for the tab changes, with the rest of the page remaining the same. Graphics are used really well - they are small and draw interest to the right places (mostly shopping), with the exception of one huge ad, which is of course intentional as well.

Ease of navigation
This site is extremely easy to navigate, which is amazing because it is so busy. The tabs in the middle of the page are neat because they pack even more information without taking up valuable space. In the upper right-hand corner, buttons for Yahoo Mail and Messenger conveniently expand to reveal those services. The search box just seems to fit naturally next to the Yahoo logo, and is given due prominence if you really intend to use this site as a search engine. Which you probably won't because you'll wander off to all the other interesting finds, such as why the White Stripes canceled their Austin City Limits show, or why mental health problems are increasing in Asia. Once I'm done browsing, I'll give this site a huge thumbs up.