Showing how its homepage customization algorithm works

Feb 11, 2012 11:31 GMT  ·  By

For some time now, Yahoo has used an algorithm to choose the news stories it shows on its homepage. It used to do it with human editors and there used to be just one homepage for everyone. Now, there are 13 million every day.

Yahoo uses a wide variety of info to pick the stories that it serves to any visitor. Based on the type of data Yahoo has on a user it can determine what stores are more likely to interest him or her.

"C.O.R.E. measures how often users click on stories overall and within different segments of the population. In just a few visits to yahoo.com, you’ll start to see tailored content appear just for you. And the more time you spend, the better it gets," Yahoo explained.

"Since C.O.R.E. was implemented in 2008, people click on the Today Module four times more often than they used to – in fact, more than 1 billion times per month! To put that in context, every eight minutes C.O.R.E. registers more clicks on the Yahoo! homepage than there are words in the entire English language," it added.

Now, Yahoo is making it possible to get a peak under the hood and see how C.O.R.E. works and what the stories that are the most popular at the moment via a new HTML5-based website are.

The site looks  rather beautiful and futuristic and is meant to impress first and foremost. But beyond the presentation, there is actual useful data, well, useful if you're interested in what people are reading, what subjects are popular and how different people are interested in different things.

The site offers demographic filters, as well as the ability to select stories based on interest. The best way to experience it is to just explore it.