Internet major Yahoo! has announced a series of changes set to roll out this week. Yahoo! is set to integrate Facebook’s social networking service into Yahoo Mail and its homepage. With this, you can read your News Feed when you log in to Yahoo! through the “Facebook Quickview” feature. Just as most other Facebook applications, which seek permission, you need to give this site permission before Facebook launches as a mini-window on the Yahoo! homepage.

In due course, you will notice a deluge of Facebook options, spread out across the network’s sites, including Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Flickr, and Yahoo’s entertainment sites like omg!, Yahoo! TV, and Yahoo! Movies. Users can use any of these sources to create and share content, allow actions on Yahoo! to be visible on Facebook Wall and News Feed.

Beginning with the Facebook integration this year, and importing personal updates posted on Twitter’s short-messaging service and Farmville later this year, Yahoo! is set to establish its website as a social hub. Jason Titus, vice president of Yahoo’s communications division, which includes its email service said that Yahoo! is more of an aggregator rather than a core social network.

Does this make Yahoo! any susceptible to the privacy backlash like Facebook? Yahoo! is prepared! It has simplified privacy controls and urges visitors to review their settings. Yahoo! has also unveiled its new privacy dashboard, known as the Yahoo! Pulse. It is believed to be “a central hub for people’s online lives.” and aims to simplify setting and managing activities and privacy on Yahoo! It was called Yahoo Profiles since its October 2008 debut. It is increasingly clear that Yahoo! is relying on partnerships, more since Carol Bartz was appointed.

This news will surely bring cheer to users who are waiting to bridge two of the world’s most popular websites – Facebook and Yahoo!