Yahoo Inc. plans to make its Web site a social hub by hosting applications from other online services, part of the Internet pioneer's effort to spawn more advertising opportunities.

"We are going to rewire the entire experience at Yahoo to make it social in every
dimension," said Ari Balogh, Yahoo's chief technology officer, on Thursday at a Web 2.0 conference. The more open platform copies a concept that already has been
embraced by Internet search leader Google Inc. and a variety of online social hangouts, including Facebook Inc. and News Corp. 's MySpace.com.

new look will give its roughly 500 million users greater flexibility to customize Web pages. They will be able to pick from a variety of mini-applications,
known as widgets, and plant them just about anywhere on the site, including their personal version of the front page.

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Hoping to capitalize on the social networking craze, Yahoo also is making it easier to connect with friends and family through its Web site. For example, it will highlight
messages from e-mail users' most frequent connections let them track the activities and opinions of online buddies.

The makeover's timing hasn't been determined, but it will happen before
the end of the year, Balogh said. It could still be derailed if Yahoo is taken over by Microsoft Corp., which has offered to buy its rival for more than $44 billion in cash and stock.