Business Insider reports that Yahoo’s internet traffic has been steadily decreasing since 2008. In 2008 people spent a total of 13.8% of their time on the site and as of this first quarter of 2012, 8% was all that was left of that number.

Business Insider recently unveiled their new BI Intelligence service and they have used it to produce this graph on Yahoo! traffic:

It’s true, the numbers are terrible, but people have more to do than hang out searching Yahoo!. After all, social networking is where its at today, but these figures are not wasted on the former internet pioneer. Earlier this month Scott Thompson, CEO at Yahoo! introduced a new plan to reorganize Yahoo! and reinvent the way they do business.

No doubt these traffic patterns weighed heavy on his decision to layoff thousands of employees and transform the structure of their business. In todays economy you have to adapt quickly or die. The changes at Yahoo take effect May 1st. So far there really isn’t much to report except the layoffs and restructuring themselves, but I am sure that will change as soon as the new policies take hold.

We’ll be watching Scott Thompson and the Yahoos closely in the coming months to see if the changes can breath new life into the organization. We’ll keep you updated as news becomes available.