Some relatively minor tweaks have had a major impact on clickthrough rates at Yahoo, and more are on the way.  Yahoo announced this afternoon that its "Trending Now" lists have been a major success, and adjustments to both them and Yahoo News are in the works.

Let’s cover the proven hit first.  On the Yahoo Search Blog, a post stated, "Click-through rates have more than doubled since we’ve improved and optimized our Trending Now lists using the content optimization technology that powers the ‘Today Module’ of the Yahoo! Homepage."

As for the upcoming changes, the smaller one involves Yahoo trying to improve the relevancy of its Trending Now lists, matching finance stories to Yahoo Finance, for example.

Then a second change is being tested in the form of new "Infinite Browse" modules.  The blog post explained, "[B]oxes like this appear below articles on Yahoo! News to give you more information on the topic you’re reading about."  Images, videos, articles, slideshows, and search suggestions are all on tap, and early results indicate that, again, engagement has doubled.

It’s hard to argue with results of that nature, even if the updates seem a little lackluster.

As a result, we’ll perhaps just stand back, congratulate Yahoo for achieving more with less, and look forward to seeing what sort of modification(s) the company implements next.