Happy 15th Birthday Yahoo!

March 2, 2010 on 10:34 am | In News | Add a Comment

Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo in their early days at Stanford

Today is Yahoo!’s 15th birthday – hooray! It’s been a long ride and we’re grateful that our users, all 600 million of them, have come along for the ride.

We’ve had the unique opportunity to help create an industry and shape the online world, and will continue to focus on the values that brought us here —working hard, having fun, being passionate about your ideas, believing in each other, and always trying to invent the future. And as we celebrate 15 years today, we are even more excited than ever about what lies ahead, and the potential of Yahoo! and the Internet.

Of course, founders Jerry Yang and David Filo didn’t set out to start one of the world’s largest Internet companies or to lead a movement that has changed the world. They were just a couple of Stanford graduate students doing our research (supposedly) while their professor was on sabbatical.

More interesting than their research was their total fascination with the web and all the cool stuff it suddenly made available. But it was incredibly hard to keep track of the thousands of great websites sprouting up everywhere. Jerry and David thought it would be fun to catalog the sites by developing a simple directory. So all this began with nothing more than a hobby to help other early Internet users.

They soon learned a huge lesson just as relevant today as then: change and growth on the Internet happen at warp speed—especially if you’re filling a need. With the proliferation of websites and with hundreds of thousands of people accessing the Yahoo! guide, it was simply impossible for Jerry and David to continue doing this on our own.

Internet growth continues to be simply phenomenal, and we’re nowhere near done. Fifteen years ago, there were 18,000 web sites and fewer than 10 million people globally on the Internet—less than one third of a single percent of the world’s population at the time. Today there are more than 200 million websites with 90,000 created daily. There are estimated to be 1.6 billion people on the internet today—about 25 percent of the world’s population.

These numbers are astonishing, but even more important and more exciting is the impact that the Internet is having on so many people around the world. From socio-economic opportunities to more accessible health care to educating the next generation and beyond, the Internet has changed the way we live, work and learn. It has overcome geographic and political barriers and has made it possible for people to raise their voices as they seek greater economic opportunity and freedom. And Yahoo! has been a leader in enabling these tremendous technological advancements every step of the way.

All this in just 15 years. Yahoo! has been built by thousands of dedicated employees, hundreds of millions of loyal users and scores of advertisers who envisioned a future that was exciting, challenging and at times daunting. We are confident that 15 years from today, we will look back in marvel at how far you, and the Internet have traveled in such a short time. Just as we are doing today.

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Love Yahoo!, Happy Birthday! I met my hubby on yahoo before all those dating sites, and online chatting was big, 12 years ago. Still my favorite search engine, and my homepage! Congrats.

Comment by Melisa — March 2, 2010 #
HAPPY B-DAY

Comment by cuban king — March 2, 2010 #
As we say here: ‘La mulţi ani!’ which is ‘To many years!’…

Comment by Jademan — March 2, 2010 #
Yahoo~~
Can’t believe it’s already 15 years. Happy Birthday!

Comment by Simple and Fun — March 3, 2010 #
Happy Birthday:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Comment by reka — March 4, 2010 #
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Yahoo!
As we say in French, “Bon anniversaire!”

Comment by Ruth — March 5, 2010 #
Dear Staff @Yahoo.com;

Yes, we’re very thankful of Mr. Jerry Yang & Mr. David Filo for there envision & as well the success that Yahoo! has had on the Internet & in the computer industry, since their evolution.

I have been enjoying the services @Yahoo.com, since I had encounter them many years back, such as Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo!/GeoCities, Yahoo! News Alerts, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Games, Yahoo! Greetings, Yahoo! HOtJobs, Yahoo! Maps, Yahoo! Search, Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Toolbar, Yahoo! Widgets, etc…

I wish Yahoo! the utmost success in the years to follow & for all those who use their services on the Internet.

Take Care everyone!

Comment by NuYoRican deCorazon — March 5, 2010 #
happy Birthday
Uhm, wen r u guys gonna make the new version of ym for imac computers ?

Comment by Lala — March 6, 2010 #
happy birth day

Comment by savannahbluecoat — March 7, 2010 #
Hi dears.
Happy birthday.
And realy thank you very much for your efforts, Jerry, David and Sarah.
I’ll be so happy to chat with your
Yahoo! Messenger v53.33 when I’m 79.995 years old.
Indead, such a nice photo you took.
Be succeed.

Comment by Vahid — March 8, 2010 #
i still wonder why yahoo ignores israel. there are no ISRAEL rooms in chat,no hebrew language in yahoo messenger 10,no yahoo webpage for israel…
but there are webpages for thailand,uk,australia,brazil,there is even a yahoo page for arabs in arabic and also arabic in messenger.
why yahoo ignores israel????
it would be better if there will be support for hebrew in all yahoo products like there is in MSN and also rooms for israelis in yahoo chat.

Comment by shery — March 8, 2010 #
congrats!blated hapi b-day!Godbless!

Comment by katedaer — March 8, 2010 #
[...] 600 million users Windows Live Hotmail: 49,759,000 unique users Windows Live Messenger: 14,845,000 unique users ICQ: [...]

Pingback by » Social networking it’s just a matter of connecting the dots - State of Search — March 9, 2010 #
happy birthday

Comment by zubair — March 10, 2010 #
Way to go yahoo ! Do you think you could cram in some more ads ? I think maybe into the bottom of messenger there is 1/16th of an inch left unused.
Love those yahoo messenger errors !!!!!

Comment by Gary Trenton — March 13, 2010 #
happy b day yahoo! thx to all the programmers who get things done right !!

Comment by brian — March 16, 2010 #
happy birthday :D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Comment by mohamed — March 17, 2010 #
Happy Birthday Yahoo, belated I know but you rock

Comment by Happy Birthday Wish — November 3, 2010 #
congratulation.. we hoped a lot nd we got it bt that isnt enough coz more is required..

Comment by bhiswanir thapa — December 30, 2010 #
Yahoo is so cool , I like it .

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