Yahoo! has, for some time, been preparing a new homepage for launch. It’s been extensively tested in closed betas and endless Q&A sessions, and finally it’s here for your eyes. It now features far fewer of Yahoo!’s own products and services, instead integrating with third-party websites — Microsoft included — saddled with display advertising.

Yahoo says the new home page is designed to help you stay on top of what is going on in your world, and on the rest of the planet. A prominent menu down the left hand side of the page allows users to customise the site through widgets, including links for third-party companies, such as Google’s Gmail, or Twitter and MySpace. This will include widgets that would allow feeds and widgets from USENET access providers and certain newsgroups via RSS replicators.

Yahoo is slated to unveil its new homepage at some point today in the U.S. and to other parts of the world later this week, in an attempt to lure users who are looking for one portal which could potentially handle many of their Web 2.0 needs. Users can customise the Yahoo! News platform to include more “Fun” or “Serious” stories to suit their tastes. Search queries can also be filtered just to include links from specific websites, such as eHow, YouTube, Amazon or Wikipedia.

If you already use Yahoo’s longstanding customized home page, MyYahoo, the new Yahoo home page might not do much for you. MyYahoo is much more customizable, with more applications or feeds than the new home page at least initially offers. But MyYahoo has never reached nearly as large an audience as the Yahoo home page because many people don’t want to mess around with personalization that much.

Originally, Yahoo planned to launch the redesign in September or October as part of a broader rebranding effort, but Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz decided to push up the time frame. The launch of the new home page comes as speculation and rumour mount that Yahoo is near to finalising a deal with Microsoft over a search and advertising partnership.