Yahoo! Mail welcome message that I received in 2001

I was going through my archives and found this one from 2001 when I had created my first Yahoo! account.

It has been over 20 years since and the way that we use the internet today has transformed radically.

Many of the services listed by Yahoo! in the screenshot here don't exist anymore or I have not used them for very long.

Yahoo! Messenger: This was a widely used instant messaging service during those days but was shut down on July 17, 2018. It was replaced by a new service called Yahoo! Together, but that one was also shut down in 2019.

Yahoo! Companion: This was a browser toolbar plugin which would nicely snap under Internet Explorer's main toolbar. It had direct buttons for search, news, pop-up blocker, e-mail and other Yahoo! services. A screenshot of its look and feel can be found here.

Yahoo! shuts down Yahoo! Directory

Yahoo! has retired the hand-curated web directory named Yahoo! Directory. Earlier in September this year, Ars Technica had written about it here.

The web directory started as the foundation of Yahoo!'s business when it started in January 1994 as Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web. It was later renamed to Yahoo which became the acronym for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.

During the early days of the World Wide Web, web directories were a preferred way to discover and find content on the web but with the advent of crawler-based search engines, the relevance of web directories have diminished. Below is a screenshot (for remembrance) as the page was on December 20, 2014 - also archived here. 

Google also had a web directory service which it shut down in July 2011. I have logged it here.

What happens after Yahoo acquires you

In this article, Matt Linderman writes about a downward trend with sites that have been acquired by Yahoo!. Interestingly, there is a pretty big list of sites that didn't do quite well after Yahoo! took over. Here the author talks in detail about Flickr, Delicious, MyBlogLog, and Upcoming.

Yahoo.com is Asia's Most Popular Website

Yahoo.com is not only the most popular web site in the US but also the top choice in Asia, leading in markets like Japan, India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. Microsoft and Google follow as the second and third most popular sites in the region, respectively. US web companies are investing more in Asia to tap into the region's rapidly growing economies like China and India. However, internet usage in Asia lags behind the global average, with South Korea having the highest rate at 65% and India and China at the bottom with 3% and 9%, respectively. Yahoo operates in China and Japan through partnerships with local companies. The Financial Express writes Yahoo.com is Asia’s favorite website here.

Yahoo! Messenger is now available inside Web Browsers

This development brings positive implications for Yahoo Messenger users as it eliminates the need to install an additional application on their local machines. This enhancement greatly enhances convenience, especially for individuals who frequently utilize the application from cyber cafes, a common practice in India where a significant proportion of internet users access the web from such establishments. Notably, Yahoo holds the second position globally in the Instant Messaging (IM) space, boasting 88.5 million users according to audience measurement firm comScore Inc. However, it is worth mentioning that AOL's AIM holds the top spot in the United States, while Microsoft's MSN/Windows Live Messenger remains the most popular globally. Here is an article on Reuters.

Yahoo! increases free email storage space to 1 gigabyte

Yahoo Inc. said on Wednesday it will soon begin giving users of its free Web e-mail service 1 gigabyte of storage, four times more than it now offers, amid intense competition. Google Inc. last spring was the first to offer 1 gigabyte of free storage to users of its invitation-only test Gmail service, setting off me-too moves from rivals. CIOL has an article on this here.