A California billboard for internet company Yahoo! Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Reading that internet company Yahoo! is celebrating its 10th birthday today seems to reach back into the dark ages of life before ubiquitous email and worldwide access to Paris Hilton's phone book. Certainly a look back at the original Yahoo! front page - which now looks far worse than something an inept, novice blogger could come up with in 10 minutes - reminds us how far the interweb has come.
The birthday also serves as a useful reminder of all those companies that tanked along the way - remember Boo.com, or Pets.com, and all the others that made Fucked Company such a joy to visit? Remember when we referred to companies such as Yahoo! as "dotcoms"?
Some of those clever IT students did make it big, though. In 1995 David Filo and Jerry Yang, two Stanford graduate students, managed to turn their helpful little guide to their favourite sites, then known as 'Jerry's Guide to The World Wide Web', into 'Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle', or Yahoo. They sought out financing, incorporated their company, and diversified like mad over the next ten years. Now they're rich.
Most importantly, though, they give back to the little people who made it happen. If you're a registered Yahoo! user, you can download a coupon and claim a free birthday ice cream today.
