Yahoo!

The two founders of Yahoo! David Filo and Jerry Yang, Ph.D. candidates in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, started their guide in a campus trailer in February 1994 as a way to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet.

The company name is an abbreviation for: Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.”

The site, www.yahoo.com, offers paid services such as real-time financial information, paid advertisement, sales of organizational service portals, management of personal sites, sales of text ads on the index, internet phone calls, astrological services, auction site ads, email, and more.

On April 12, 1996, the company went public and sold 2.6 million shares, and is estimated at 50 billion dollars today. The company has 165 million registered users, and around 345 unique visitors.

Starting in 2002, the company began purchasing new and advanced technologies, and companies such as Geocities, Rocket Mail, Inktomi, etc. Additionally, over the course of 2003, the company purchased Overture Services, Alta Vista, and Alltheweb.

On February 18, 2004, Yahoo! Established an internal search engine, and initiated partnerships with international service providers such as the European Kelkoo.