Yahoo! -
Yahoo! began as a Web directory - a compilation of useful Web sites. At the time (1994)
there was no really good way to find information on the Web. As Web pages proliferated, the need for some search
device became more obvious.
The two founders of Yahoo!, David Filo and Jerry Yang, were Ph.D. candidates in Electrical
Engineering at Stanford University. They started their guide in a campus trailer in February 1994 as a way to keep track
of their personal interests on the Internet. Eventually, the lists became too long and
unwieldy, and they were divided into categories. When the categories became too full, they developed subcategories,
and subcategories of subcategories, and the main idea of the Web directory and Yahoo! was born. At some point, a text
search function was added, so Yahoo! became a kind of Search Engine.
The Web site began as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web" but
eventually received a new name. Yahoo! is an acronym for "Yet Another
Hierarchical Officious Oracle," but Filo and Yang say they selected the name because they liked the definition of a
"yahoo:" "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth." Yahoo! itself first was run on Yang's student workstation,
"Akebono," while the software was run on Filo's computer, "Konishiki" - both named after legendary sumo wrestlers.
Jerry and David soon found their application was filling a need. Before long, hundreds of people were accessing their guide from well beyond the Stanford trailer. Word spread
from friends to what became a significant, loyal set of users in the then closely-knit Internet community. Yahoo!
celebrated its first million-hit day in the fall of 1994, translating to almost 100 thousand unique visitors. The
Yahoo! domain went online on January 18, 1995.
In March 1995, the founders incorporated the business and met
with of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. They eventually found Sequoia Capital,
whose most successful investments included Apple Computer, Atari, Oracle and Cisco Systems. Sequoia agreed to fund Yahoo!
in April 1995, providing an initial investment of nearly $2 million.
Yahoo! hired Tim Koogle, a veteran of Motorola and an alumnus of the Stanford engineering
department, as chief executive officer and Jeffrey Mallett, founder of Novell's WordPerfect consumer division, as chief
operating officer. Yahoo! secured a second round of funding in fall 1995 from investors Reuters Ltd. and Softbank. Yahoo!
launched a highly-successful IPO in April 1996 with 49 employees.
Yahoo! branched out into Web mail, financial services, user discussion groups and numerous other fields.
Yahoo! Inc. offers a comprehensive branded network of services to more than 345 million individuals each month
worldwide. As the first online navigational guide to the Web, www.yahoo.com is the leading guide in terms of traffic,
advertising, household and business user reach. Yahoo! is the No. 1 Internet brand globally and reaches the largest
audience worldwide. The company also provides online business and enterprise services designed to enhance the
productivity and Web presence of Yahoo!'s clients. These services include Corporate Yahoo!, a popular customized
enterprise portal solution; audio and video streaming; store hosting and management; and Web site tools and services.
The company's global Web network includes 25 World properties. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., Yahoo! has offices in
Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia, Canada and the United States.
Optimization for the Yahoo! search engine is somewhat different from that needed for Google.
Yahoo! allows paid submissions and probably gives them priority. It also has a paid directory that influences search
results. Yahoo seems to be more sensitive to differences in plural versus singular forms of search terms and it may take
into account the Keywords Metatag that is ignored by Google. Yahoo! local affiliates in different countries have
different policies regarding site submission than the main yahoo.com site, and submission to the separate sites such as
Yahoo.ca and Yahoo.uk is usually desirable in order to get listed in those sites.
Yahoo! has grown into the number 1 Web site worldwide according to most listings, with 13,800 employees and 2008
revenues of over $7 billion and over 1.5 billion visitors a day at the Yahoo.com domain. However, the competing Google
search engine, which has fewer listings, is usually considered to have a larger share of search engine traffic in the
USA and worldwide. Unlike
Google, Yahoo's ranking of Web sites may be
influenced by paid listings and other practices that compromise quality. Yahoo directory listings in the United States
are usually not free, though this practice changes from time to time.
Note - Definitions of Search Engine
Optimization terms are based on inferences from common usage and definitions given by other sources. Conclusions about
search engine behavior are based on understanding of the behavior of the most popular search engines. Both are subject
to error or may change. Search engine company management may define or use a term or set or change any policy in any way
they see fit, and may make these definitions and specifications public or not. These decisions and definitions are
beyond our control. Notice: Copyright
All materials are copyright 2008, 2009 by Ami Isseroff. All rights reserved. These pages may not be reproduced in any
form in electronic or printed media without express written permission from the author.
SEO Glossary
