Web Site For Online Service example essay topic

Like many other aspects of the computer age, Yahoo! began as an idea, grew into a hobby and is now a publicly traded company. Created in 1994 by two Stanford University Graduates, David Filo and Jerry Yang, the two started their guide in April as a way to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet. There were no system or software programs available at the time so Dave and Jerry wrote a software program that enabled them to group their lists into various subject areas. Dave and Jerry spent twenty to forty hours a week locating, identifying, and indexing web sites using the software that they developed.

They were determined to cover the entire Web and set goals to visit and categorize at least 1000 sites a day. This unofficial list of private links became a very large list of shared links and was named "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web". It was not originally designed with an external audience in mind but it had attracted one. Jerry and Dave received countless encouraging e-mails from people praising their site.

In the fall of 1994 the name of the site changed to Yahoo! which is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". Dave and Jerry insisted they select this name because they considered themselves "yahoos". The two now converted Yahoo! into a customized database designed to serve the needs of the thousands of users that began to use the service through the closely bound Internet community. The Web was entering one of its fastest periods of growth and Yahoo! was experiencing an increase of traffic, so much traffic their database of web sites started overloading Stanford's computers.

This is when they decided to turn their hobby into a career. In early 1995 Marc Andre essen, co-founder of Netscape Communications, invited Jerry and Dave to move their files over to larger computers housed at Netscape. As a result Stanford's computer network returned to back to normal and Yahoo! could accommodate growth with the help of Netscape. During this time, Dave and Jerry were in search of venture capitalists, they met with Mike Moritz, a partner in Sequoia Capital, who made an offer.

As well as America Online who made a very attractive offer but Dave and Jerry felt that going with AOL would essentially "kill" Yahoo! as they saw it. After many meetings and much negotiation, the two decided to go at it alone and the company was financed by Sequoia in April 1995 for a value of $4 million. Yahoo! became a company with employees, a CEO, and an Initial Public Offering on April 12, 1997 with shares priced at $13. On that day, the stock peaked at $43 and then ended the day at $33 per share, which gave the company a market valuation of $850 million. Today Yahoo! has an average of 25 million unique users per month, and has a larger audience than any other Web site for online service. As the first online navigational guide to the Web, web is the single largest guide in terms of traffic, advertising, household and a business user, reach, and is one of the most recognized brands associated with the Internet.

The Company also provides online business and enterprise services designed to enhance the productivity and Web presence of Yahoo!'s clients. These services include Corporate Yahoo! , a customized enterprise portal solution; audio and video streaming; store hosting and management; and Website tools and services. Yahoo! is based in Santa Clara, California and has grown with offices in now located in Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Canada.