from the do-you-know-anyone-who-uses-it? dept.
As part of an ongoing effort to streamline and focus its business, Yahoo today announced ( http://yahoo.tumblr.com/post/98474044364/progress-report-continued-product-focus ) that it was retiring its namesake product at the end of the year.
In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo, graduate students at Stanford University, created a hierarchical directory of websites, "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web." In March of that year, they gave it the name "Yahoo!," for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle."
In the early days of the Web, these categorized, human-curated Web listings were all the rage. Search engines existed, but rapidly became notorious for their poor result quality. On a Web that was substantially smaller than the one we enjoy today, directories were a useful alternative way of finding sites of interest.
(Score: 2) by toygeek on Saturday September 27 2014, @07:25PM
it looks like http://www.dmoz.org/ [dmoz.org] is surviving fine. Haven't used it in forever though. Google is just too quick and accurate (with a well phrased search).
There is no Sig. Okay, maybe a short one. http://miscdotgeek.com
(Score: 2) by toygeek on Saturday September 27 2014, @07:28PM
Looks like I may have spoken too soon. The newest Windows category is "XP"...
There is no Sig. Okay, maybe a short one. http://miscdotgeek.com
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Sunday September 28 2014, @02:29AM
I used DMOZ just last week. I'd miss it, as a much less cluttered place when it comes to finding certain stuff.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Saturday September 27 2014, @07:42PM
Other than acquire companies, what does Yahoo do now? They used to be a web directory, but I can't remember going to their site this century. If they're doing anything with the companies they acquire, I haven't heard anything about new, game-changing technology coming out of Yahoo. The new CEO seems more like a spokesmodel than anything else, getting her picture in the paper ad nauseam. What I'm missing is their strategy, to complete the sentence: "Yahoo is a ______" - I can't quite fill in the blank, other than "Google imitation also-ran". What exactly is the benchmark of success for the new CEO anyway? When will we know she has succeeded or failed? With the cash infusion from the Alibaba IPO, Yahoo will have lots of money, so it doesn't seem to matter what she does. Sorry, I don't understand Internet companies.
BTW, this weekend's Wall St Journal has a bizarre article (again, with the spokesmodel's picture taking up more space than the article text) about some nutjob activist investor wanting Yahoo to buy AOL with the Alibaba money. That sounds insane, but the nutjob apparently has been trying to get someone to buy AOL for a long time. He must be stuck with stock in AOL or something. Anyhow, when two also-rans merge, nothing good ever comes of it. (See Sears and K-Mart for a recent example.)
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @07:48PM
Cruising the financial news, I found this:
So, to fill in the "Yahoo is ___" blank, Yahoo is an ad host. They don't provide the analytics and consulting services that Google does, nor do they have the eye-bait that Google does, so "Google imitation also-ran" is pretty much on target. They might have started as a web directory, much as Google might have started as a search engine, but at their core, when you fill in the blank, they are both ad hosts.
(Score: 1) by pnkwarhall on Saturday September 27 2014, @08:15PM
IMHO, Yahoo can't die quick enough. Their services are poor quality, and their homepage is a bloated monster of advertising and "sponsored content". Oh, and the most worthless "news" portal I have ever seen.
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 3, Insightful) by PizzaRollPlinkett on Saturday September 27 2014, @08:42PM
Were those points about Yahoo the positives or negatives? I haven't been to Yahoo in over a decade.
I made the mistake of going there just now. David Pogue? The comedian who impersonates a technology expert? I can see that it's not the site for me.
Their site is way too cluttered. You have crap at the top, crap down the left, crap down the right, and a nested banner of crap in the center. It's like someone forgot to take ADHD medicine and designed the site. Maybe you can personalize it to narrow it down to just the articles you're interested in, if you log in and let them track you. I prefer RSS feeds, but that's just me.
I guess they're aiming at the same audience People magazine aimed at when I was young and people bought magazines.
What I don't get is how they can turn that into revenue, since there are a million similar sites on the Internet doing the same thing. I don't see the clear plan to dominate their space by offering something better or different. Maybe it hasn't come together yet, and all the technology they bought will achieve something. The problem with buying technology is usually integration, which is often harder than just DYI reinventing the same wheels.
(E-mail me if you want a pizza roll!)
(Score: 1) by pnkwarhall on Saturday September 27 2014, @08:48PM
crap at the top, crap down the left, crap down the right, and a nested banner of crap in the center
You don't need to visit yahoo.com -- you just summed it up!
Also, in reference to what you said, I have zero positives about Yahoo. The main reason I want it to die is so another search engine can come and fill the "Big Three" vacuum.
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @10:35PM
And that, in a nutshell, is the mystery of humanity. How can we have come so far, learned so much, traveled to the stars and built an amazing knowledge engine that can put all of man's knowledge at your fingertips… and use it for advertising.
The number one trending story on Yahoo is about vagina cookies. I'm not even kidding.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 27 2014, @10:22PM
As is so often the case, it's the user-produced stuff that is useful.
An example is their homebrew printed circuit Yahoo Group. [yahoo.com]
As cheaply as you can get a professionally-done multi-layer board from Bulgaria or China these days with a few days turnaround, unless you need it RIGHT NOW, that DIY stuff is an anachronism.
Since Yahoo became a subsidiary of M$, they have completely lost my interest.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Saturday September 27 2014, @08:34PM
Sigh, I distinctly recall submitting web addresses to Yahoo back in the day when it was THE place to go.
And I still think that actual human curation will always beat algorithms for trustworthiness.
Sadly Yahoo just got crushed by the juggernaut that was AltaVista.
(Score: 2) by fliptop on Saturday September 27 2014, @08:44PM
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 2) by danomac on Saturday September 27 2014, @09:13PM
Who is retiring what now???
I'm more surprised people still use Yahoo...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 28 2014, @02:02AM
I use it everyday. I use it mostly for myyahoo, its rss feeds, and stock summaries. However, I was surprised they still had the directory. Google is way better.
I remember using it a *LOT* when there was some online web game with trivia and trying to find some icon on dozens of websites out there.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday September 28 2014, @02:31AM
Yeah, the stock summaries are the most useful I've seen. Okay, I haven't looked a lot, but no other I've tried has been worth making an account.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.