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 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, 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 made up as a special name called a backronym. It 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". This slang meaning came from a book called Gulliver's Travels. It described someone who was rude and unsophisticated.

History

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Yahoo.

Founding

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

Yahoo became an official company on March 2, 1995. In 1995, Yahoo added a search engine called Yahoo Search. Soon, Yahoo became a popular place to find websites on the World Wide Web.

Expansion and the dot-com bubble

Yahoo grew fast during the 1990s. It became a public company in April 1996. 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. In 1997, Yahoo started offering free e-mail after buying RocketMail, which became Yahoo Mail. In 1999, Yahoo bought Geocities and Broadcast.com.

Yahoo's stock price went very high, but fell after the dot-com bubble ended in 2001.

Yahoo used Google for search for a time but later made its own search technology. In 2007, Yahoo started offering unlimited storage for email. In 2008, Yahoo had to let go of many workers because it was struggling.

Yahoo tried to buy Google twice but was refused. In 2008, Microsoft tried to buy Yahoo but the talks stopped.

Carol Bartz became Yahoo's CEO in January 2009. She was replaced in September 2011.

In April 2012, many leaders left Yahoo after Scott Thompson became CEO. Marissa Mayer became Yahoo's CEO in July 2012.

In June 2013, Yahoo bought the blogging site Tumblr. 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 appear higher in search results. This did not please users or website owners. By 2006, this program changed. In 2016, Verizon Communications bought Yahoo's main internet services. In 2017, Verizon finished the purchase, and Mayer left Yahoo. Yahoo, AOL, and HuffPost continued 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. In 2023, Yahoo announced it would reduce its workforce by 20%.

Products and services

Yahoo is an American website that offers many helpful tools. You can use Yahoo Search to find information online. Other services include Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, and Yahoo Sports. There are also services for entertainment and lifestyle, plus an advertising platform called Yahoo Native.

For a list of all current and past services from Yahoo, see List of Yahoo-owned sites and services.

Data breaches

Yahoo had two big security problems in 2016. Hackers took information from many user accounts. The first problem happened in 2014 and affected over 500 million accounts. The second problem happened in 2013 and affected over 1 billion accounts. These were some of the biggest security issues ever found on the Internet. The information taken included 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 2013 security problem.

Criticism

Yahoo has faced some criticism over the years. In 2009, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said Yahoo did something unfair by sending a notice to a website about Yahoo users.

Yahoo also had problems with some of its services. In 2006, a teacher found that Yahoo’s image search showed pictures that were not right, even with a safety setting on. Yahoo said they were trying to fix it.

In some countries, Yahoo has had to follow strict rules about what people can see online. This has worried groups that help protect free speech and human rights. Some people think companies should support these important values, even if it means going against some government rules.

Partners and sponsorships

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

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 worked with the National Basketball Association to stream games and create 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.