There and Back Again: A Yahoo Tale
Yahoo is one of few success stories from the beginning of the Web. The dream began in 1994, a product of the imaginations of Jerry Yang and Dave Filo. Yahoo, or “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”, was at its origin a database to be used by office workers globally. It’s 1996 layout was simple and to the point, giving visitors a limited number of information to peruse for research purposes.
In 1997, Yahoo updated the layout of its website moderately. It changed the layout to a more centric theme, while also adding top news headlines to the page. It’s list of Yahoo Metros also increased to accommodate it’s increased viewership.
By 1998 Yahoo was the most popular starting portal for web users. It added a number of online game options, as well as providing hyperlinks to phone directories, maps, stocks, etc. Yahoo was quickly on the path to becoming a Jack-of-All-Trades in the web hub industry. 1997 was a year of emailing and “push”, but 1998's Yahoo brought all the information you needed and email ability to one simple website.
1999 set the stage for the Y2K scare. People were nervous. Wild rumors of 2000 bringing the digital apocalypse were abound, but Yahoo still managed to deliver perfection in its ever developing web hub. Yahoo began introducing instant messaging services, hubs specific to nations globally, and even online marketplaces. This kept them up to snuff with competition such as AOL and Ebay.
It soon become apparent that 2000 would not be the end of ends for technology as we knew it. The year 2000 for Yahoo only produced moderate changes to the website. Updates to hyperlinks and web format can be seen, but it generally maintained its 1999 appearance. It cleaned up a but of it’s design, you can notice a distinct difference between the boxes surrounding the “In the News”, “Marketplace”, and “Inside Yahoo!” sections compared to the 1999 section.
Yahoo 2001 remained very much the same as Yahoo 2000. The year 2002, though, brought a beautiful new design change to the site. It introduced new Internet access services, began taking advantage of pictures on the site, and even started an online dating program. The Web market was growing with competitors, and therefore Yahoo needed to grow it’s resume of abilities to keep its Jack-of-All-Trades status. 2002 also marked the beginning of its purple design layout that we’ve come to recognize today.
2005 brought Yahoo closer to what we know it to be today. Even I have a very vivid recollection of visiting this years layout to check my email and play online Texas Hold’em. The 2005 Yahoo included its own search engine to compete with Google’s, included self-service ads, and had a more sophisticated look with the help of cleaner design and picture usage.
2010 laid the groundwork for modern Yahoo. Moving Yahoo! services to a sidebar on the left, it made centralized it’s search bar for easy to reach access, while still leaving headline news as easy to see. It added trending topics and made use of popular video footage to compete with the growingly popular Youtube.
Yahoo 2015. A culmination of 20 years of progression has given us the Yahoo! we know today. It is never strayed from its web hub roots. It courageously advanced its design and capabilities in order to keep its role as one of the most important web portals of today’s Web generation.
