Yahoo

Yahoo is an American web portal that offers many useful services for people to use online. You can search for information with Yahoo Search, read news at Yahoo News, check your emails through Yahoo Mail, and even look up sports scores on Yahoo Sports. Other services include Yahoo Finance for money news, My Yahoo for personalized updates, and Yahoo Native for ads.

Yahoo was started by two friends, Jerry Yang and David Filo, in January 1994, during the early days of the Internet. It was one of the first websites many people visited when they got online. Over time, though, Yahoo lost some of its popularity as newer sites like Facebook and Google became more popular.

Today, Yahoo is run by a company called Yahoo! Inc.. Most of this company is owned by a group called Apollo Global Management, with a smaller part owned by Verizon. Even though Yahoo is not as big as it once was, it still provides many services that people use every day.

Etymology

The word "yahoo" was created as a special name called a backronym, which stands for "Yet Another Hierarchically Organized Oracle". The word "hierarchical" shows how the Yahoo database was set up in layers. "Oracle" means a source of truth and wisdom. The founders chose the name because they liked the slang meaning of "yahoo", which described someone who was rude and unsophisticated, from a book called Gulliver's Travels.

History

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Yahoo.

Founding

In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo were graduate students at Stanford University when they created a website called "Jerry and David's guide to the World Wide Web". The site organized web pages into categories instead of using a search index. In March 1994, it was renamed "Yahoo!" and became known as the Yahoo Directory. The "yahoo.com" domain was registered on January 18, 1995.

Yahoo became an official company on March 2, 1995. In 1995, Yahoo added a search engine called Yahoo Search, which let users find pages in the Yahoo Directory. Soon, Yahoo became the first popular online directory and search engine on the World Wide Web.

Expansion and the dot-com bubble

Yahoo grew quickly during the 1990s. It became a public company in April 1996, and its stock price rose 600% in two years. Yahoo added many services and competed with other companies like Excite, Lycos, and America Online. By 1998, Yahoo was the most popular place to start on the web, and the Yahoo Directory was the most used search engine, getting 95 million visits each day. Yahoo also bought several companies. In 1997, Yahoo started offering free e-mail after buying RocketMail, which became Yahoo Mail. In 1999, Yahoo bought Geocities for $3.6 billion and Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion.

Yahoo's stock price reached its highest point of $118.75 per share on January 3, 2000, but fell to $8.11 after the dot-com bubble ended in 2001.

Yahoo started using Google for search in 2000 but later developed its own search technology, beginning in 2004. In 2007, Yahoo began offering unlimited storage for email. In 2008, Yahoo had to lay off many workers because it was struggling against competition.

Yahoo tried to buy Google twice but was refused. In 1998, Yahoo turned down a chance to buy Google for $1 million, and in 2002, Yahoo's offer of $3 billion was also refused. In 2008, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion, but Yahoo said the price was too low. After Microsoft increased its offer to $47 billion, Yahoo still wanted more money, and Microsoft stopped trying to buy Yahoo in May 2008.

Carol Bartz, who used to lead Autodesk, became Yahoo's CEO in January 2009. She was replaced in September 2011.

In April 2012, many important leaders left Yahoo after Scott Thompson became CEO. Yahoo announced plans to let go of 2,000 workers, which was about 14% of its staff. Marissa Mayer became Yahoo's CEO in July 2012.

In June 2013, Yahoo bought the blogging site Tumblr for $1.1 billion. In July 2013, Yahoo announced plans to open an office in San Francisco.

Decline, security breaches, and sale

In 2004, Yahoo started a program where websites could pay to be listed higher in search results. This was not popular with users or website owners. By 2006, this program changed, and by 2015, Marissa Mayer faced criticism as Yahoo's performance got worse. In 2016, Verizon Communications bought Yahoo's main internet services for $4.83 billion. In 2017, Verizon finished the purchase, and Mayer left Yahoo. Yahoo, AOL, and HuffPost continued as separate brands under a new company called Verizon Media.

In September 2021, investment funds managed by Apollo Global Management bought most of Yahoo. In November 2021, Yahoo stopped working in mainland China because of difficult business conditions. In 2023, Yahoo announced it would reduce its workforce by 20%, cutting about 1,000 jobs from its 8,600 employees.

Products and services

Yahoo is an American web portal that offers many useful services. You can use Yahoo Search to find information online, and there are other services like Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, and Yahoo Sports. There are also entertainment and lifestyle services, as well as an advertising platform called Yahoo Native.

For a list of all current and defunct services offered by Yahoo, see List of Yahoo-owned sites and services.

Data breaches

Yahoo had two big security problems in 2016 where hackers took information from many user accounts. The first problem happened in late 2014 and affected over 500 million accounts. The second problem happened around August 2013 and affected over 1 billion accounts. These were some of the biggest security issues ever found on the Internet. The information taken included things like names, email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, and passwords.

Later, Yahoo said that all 3 billion of its user accounts were affected by the August 2013 security problem.

Criticism

Yahoo has faced several criticisms over the years. In 2009, the Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized Yahoo for sending a notice to a website that shared details about Yahoo's users, saying it was unfair.

Yahoo also faced issues with some of its services. For example, in 2006, a teacher found that Yahoo's image search showed inappropriate pictures even when a safety setting was turned on. Yahoo said they were working to fix the problem.

In some countries, Yahoo has been asked to follow strict rules about what people can see online. This has led to concerns from groups that work to protect free speech and human rights. Some people believe that companies should stand up for these important values, even if it means going against government rules in certain places.

Partners and sponsorships

Yahoo has partnered with many big names over the years. In 2001, Yahoo worked with FIFA for the 2002 and 2006 World Cup tournaments. Yahoo also sponsored the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and teamed up with NBC Sports Group the same year.

In 2013, Yahoo made TV video deals with companies like Condé Nast and WWE. In 2014, Yahoo became a founding partner of Levi's Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers. Yahoo Sports has also worked with the National Basketball Association to stream games and offer special fan experiences. Other partners include BuzzFeed, the NFL, the Paley Center for Media, Verizon Media, Pramac Racing, and Shopify. Yahoo has also sponsored events like New York Fashion Week and the MotoGP Championship.