What is Yahoo? - Definition from WhatIs.com
Part of the Internet applications glossary:

Yahoo! is an Internet portal that incorporates a search engine and a directory of World Wide Web sites organized in a hierarchy of topic categories. As a directory, it provides both new and seasoned Web users the reassurance of a structured view of hundreds of thousands of Web sites and millions of Web pages. It also provides one of the best ways to search the Web for a given topic. Since Yahoo is associated with the most popular Web search sites, if a search argument doesn't lead to a Yahoo topic page, it will still lead to results from the six or seven popular search engine sites Yahoo links to.

Know-IT-All

Yahoo! began as the bookmark lists of two Stanford University graduate students, David Filo and Jerry Yang. After putting their combined bookmark lists organized by categories on a college site, the list began to grow into an Internet phenomenon. It became the first such directory with a large following. Filo and Yang postponed their graduate work and became part of a public offering for a multimillion dollar corporation. As of October, 2005, Yahoo was serving approximately 3.4 billion page views worldwide.

According to the site's official FAQ (frequently asked questions) list, Yahoo stands for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle."

This was last updated in December 2005
Contributor(s): Chuck Bury
Editorial Director: Margaret Rouse

Related Terms

Definitions

  • search engine

    - On the Internet, a search engine is a coordinated set of programs that includes: A spider (also called a "crawler" or a "bot") that goes to every page or representative pages on every Web site that... (SearchSOA.com)

  • VoIP security threats

    - As VoIP becomes increasingly prevalent, so do the threats aimed at subverting its security. Hackers are developing new methods of attack and finding new ways to use established methods. How much do... (WhatIs.com)

  • instant messaging (IM or IM-ing or AIM)

    - Instant messaging (sometimes called IM or IMing) is the ability to easily see whether a chosen friend or co-worker is connected to the Internet and, if they are, to exchange messages with them. (SearchUnifiedCommunications.com)

Glossaries

  • Internet applications

    - This WhatIs.com glossary contains terms related to Internet applications, including definitions about Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery models and words and phrases about web sites, e-commerce ...

  • Computing fundamentals

    - Terms related to computer fundamentals, including computer hardware definitions and words and phrases about software, operating systems, peripherals and troubleshooting.

Dig Deeper

Continue Reading About Yahoo

Fast References

People Who Read This Also Read...

Ask a Question. Find an Answer.Powered by ITKnowledgeExchange.com

Ask An IT Question

Get answers from your peers on your most technical challenges

Ask Question

Tech TalkComment

Share
Comments

    Results

    Contribute to the conversation

    All fields are required. Comments will appear at the bottom of the article.
    Back to top