Semi_Hemi_Demigod comments on Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment: “Most people have completely forgotten how chaotic it really was.”

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 67 points 2 months ago (11 children)

The web used to be so small that Yahoo! had real humans doing the categorizing.

[–] Miller@lemmy.world 31 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Yahoo for a while was becoming the world wide web, messenger, clubs, search, email and games all engaged with on a single identity, even turned down an offer to buy Google. Then it packed it all away and went home.

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[–] NewOldGuard@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Ive heard it still has a titan presence in Japan though

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[–] noahm@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago (1 child)

Yahoo Japan is actually a completely separate company.

Yahoo itself is still extremely popular in the US, just with a different demographic than we (the sort of people on the fediverse) regularly interact with. Their sports, finance, and news sites are some of the most popular on the internet. I don’t think it’s particularly relevant in the web search space these days though, and hasn’t been for a long time.

I think we don’t hear much about it because it has found a niche and is staying within it. It’s profitable, but not on an “infinite growth forever” trajectory so it rarely makes the news. Honestly kind of respectable.

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[–] StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Yahoo itself is still extremely popular in the US, just with a different demographic...

My Nan was a faithful Yahoo user from her first WebTV right up to her death. I imagine she'd be exchanging all caps emails still if we'd buried her with a laptop.

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