Yahoo’s new CEO Marissa Mayer’s second week is showing even more signs of what the company will be like under her regime. In short: It will be just like Google, from whence she came. Praise be: Yahoogle lives! Wasting little time, Mayer has added a weekly Friday afternoon all-hands meeting, which kicked off this past week at the company’s Sunnyvale HQ. Just like it has been done at the search giant for eons. And, at the 4:30 pm PT confab, she announced — to the shock of some bean counters at Yahoo, worried about the cost, but to the thrill of hungry engineers — that henceforth the food in Yahoo’s URLs Cafe — but only in Silicon Valley for now — will be free. Just like it has been done at Google for eons. (Until now, only the coffee-bar drinks for Yahoos have been paid for by co-founders Jerry Yang and David Filo.) And, several sources note, Mayer is also prepping major changes to the layout of the work spaces and buildings of Yahoo to make it feel more collaborative and cool, as well as upgrading swag in its stores. Just like, well , you get the idea. (Can someone let me know when the cute beach bikes and Segways arrive? Or if purple exercise balls start to pop up everywhere like kudzu?) Such focus on improving cultural issues is an interesting initial move by the neophyte CEO, since the care and feeding and, most of all, cosseting of employees has been a critical element to Google’s success at creating an always sunny work environment. Yahoo has been anything but blue skies over the last few years for staffers, who have been hit by layoffs, ugly management shakeouts and ever-declining business prospects. In fact, as the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival song goes, in what has been Yahoo’s theme music for far too long: Long as I remember the rain been coming down/Clouds of myst’ry pouring confusion on the ground/Good men through the ages, trying to find the sun/And I wonder, still I wonder, who’ll stop the rain. It’s now Mayer’s job to stop that rain, and she’ll start with yogurt sundaes, gratis for all at HQ! “It might be just a small thing, but people are thrilled,” said one Yahoo employee, in a common sentiment about the symbolic gesture of free grub. But, joked another: “There’s no free lunch.” Indeed not, and Mayer has been up to much more serious business, said several sources, most especially pushing product innovation as the savior for Yahoo to anyone who will listen. Better email! Better Flickr! Better search! Better ad-serving! In other words, better every product Yahoo has to offer.

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In Week Two, Marissa Mayer Googifies Yahoo: Free Food! Friday Afternoon All-Hands! New Work Spaces! Fab Swag!