About Yahoo

Yahoo! was founded in 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo as a directory of websites before evolving into one of the most popular search engines of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Yahoo! Search gained prominence as one of the internet's early giants, but its influence began to wane as Google rose to dominance. Yahoo! eventually transitioned to outsourcing its search capabilities, first to Microsoft’s Bing in 2009.

Today, Yahoo! Search uses Bing’s search engine infrastructure to deliver results. It is no longer an independent search engine, but instead a portal that pulls in results from Bing while offering additional services like news, finance, email, and more. Yahoo! provides a curated experience, focusing on content discovery through its various other channels in addition to standard web search.

Yahoo! remains active, though its search functionality is now powered by Bing. While it no longer leads the market, it maintains a significant user base, especially for its non-search services like Yahoo! Finance and Yahoo! Mail. As a search engine, however, its market share is small, and it functions more as a web portal than a true search engine leader.

Yahoo Timeline

• 1994: Yahoo! was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo as a web directory called "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web". It quickly transformed into one of the first major web portals, combining search with curated web directories.
• 1995: Yahoo! went public, becoming one of the most popular sites on the internet. It launched Yahoo Search, initially powered by third-party search engines like AltaVista and Inktomi.
• 2000: At the peak of the dot-com bubble, Yahoo! was one of the most visited sites globally, offering services like Yahoo Mail, news, finance, and messenger. It became a gateway to the internet for millions of users.
• 2003: Yahoo! acquired Overture Services, including AltaVista and the rights to use Inktomi's search technology, which allowed Yahoo! to develop its own in-house search engine and challenge Google more directly.
• 2009: Yahoo! entered a search alliance with Microsoft, agreeing to use Bing’s search engine for Yahoo Search results. This move marked the end of Yahoo! as an independent search engine operator, relying on Bing for backend results while maintaining a unique Yahoo-branded user experience.
• 2017: Verizon acquired Yahoo!’s core internet operations, merging it with AOL under the name Oath (later Verizon Media). By this time, Yahoo! had lost much of its relevance in search but continued to attract users through its content and media properties.
• 2021: Yahoo! was sold to Apollo Global Management, along with other Verizon Media properties. The new ownership sought to revive Yahoo! as a content-focused brand, but the search engine remained secondary to its media and news offerings.
• Legacy: Yahoo! is remembered as a trailblazer of the early internet, providing search, email, and news services to millions of users. Its decline highlights the challenges of adapting to a changing digital landscape, where Google’s algorithmic innovations became the gold standard for search.

Keep going—here’s another search engine history to explore. Yandex: The Search Giant of Russia.