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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: 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_