The New York Times reports that Yahoo! is planning to refocus its website around the growing social networking trends, by adding Web 2.0 applications and allowing registered users to develop their own web pages, add widgets and personalise their experience, including providing the ability to link to friends and track actions and opinions.

The new plans are expected to start appearing before the end of the year, subject to any takeover by Microsoft. As the pressure for the acquisition moves towards the next stage, Yahoo! has been looking for alternative suitors to protect their position (such as AOL) or partners to strengthen their online revenues (such as Google's recent trial of AdWords on Yahoo!). Ultimately, Yahoo! appears to be looking at ways of using the latest Internet trends to increase their opportunities for selling advertising space on their web properties.