5 ms·

As a sidebar, I've always kinda felt the name gets in the way. Yahoo! I feel silly saying it. I feel silly asking someone if they Yahoo!? It feels silly seein

As a sidebar, I've always kinda felt the name gets in the way. Yahoo! I feel silly saying it. I feel silly asking someone if they Yahoo!? It feels silly seeing it on stock tickers. Do I want to invest in a silly business? Work for a silly business? The answers are yes and yes in an objective world, if the company is producing interesting products that are selling. But when it comes to marketing to users, investors and future employees alike, I'm not so sure it isn't a small hurdle in the way of that conversation.

jeffwass 11y ago
Interesting comment, but does sample size of 1 mean times have changed? I remember reading a tech trade rag back in the late 90's where some consulting company or other was talking about their business. They were getting tons of requests to help provide branding and corporate identity for tech clients. Apparently "Yahoo" was the gold standard, and everybody and their cousin wanted a name or trademark or other branding component akin to Yahoo.
morgante 11y ago
As opposed to Google, which has a super staid and boring name.
- morinted 11y ago
  At least Google doesn't have a sound bite of yodelling.
  - talmand 11y ago
    And it works nicely as a verb.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
coldtea 11y ago
>Yahoo! I feel silly saying it. I feel silly asking someone if they Yahoo!? Yeah, nothing like the gravitas and seriousness of Google.
- SteveNuts 11y ago
  "Google it" rolls off the tongue a lot better than "Yahoo it". Plus with Google's minimalist design (at least in the early years) they can get away with the silly name.
  - coldtea 11y ago
    All those are after the fact explanations. When Yahoo! ruled the web -- and I was there for those years back in the mid-late nineties when it was as big as Google is now -- the name clearly wasn't a problem.
- mattlutze 11y ago
  It doesn't need gravitas. But the onomatopoeic and just-slightly-this-side-from-awkward feeling of it has always bugged me a little.
FussyZeus 11y ago
The old ads were great, from the early 00s? Always ended with the dude screaming YaaahooooOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Memories.
- aswanson 11y ago
  I always hated those ads and also thought the name was silly, even at the time. But hey, they're still here.
  - wavefunction 11y ago
    The name was from a much more optimistic time in the history of the Internet, when everything was shiny and brand new and less slick and calculated.
    - FussyZeus 11y ago
      Oh please, nothing's changed. Give em a website consisting of nothing but stock photos and solid color squares and a name like Yahooify and they'd blend right in.

jeffwass 11y ago

Interesting comment, but does sample size of 1 mean times have changed? I remember reading a tech trade rag back in the late 90's where some consulting company or other was talking about their business. They were getting tons of requests to help provide branding and corporate identity for tech clients. Apparently "Yahoo" was the gold standard, and everybody and their cousin wanted a name or trademark or other branding component akin to Yahoo.

morgante 11y ago

As opposed to Google, which has a super staid and boring name.

morinted 11y ago
At least Google doesn't have a sound bite of yodelling.
- talmand 11y ago
  And it works nicely as a verb.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

coldtea 11y ago

>Yahoo! I feel silly saying it. I feel silly asking someone if they Yahoo!? Yeah, nothing like the gravitas and seriousness of Google.

SteveNuts 11y ago
"Google it" rolls off the tongue a lot better than "Yahoo it". Plus with Google's minimalist design (at least in the early years) they can get away with the silly name.
- coldtea 11y ago
  All those are after the fact explanations. When Yahoo! ruled the web -- and I was there for those years back in the mid-late nineties when it was as big as Google is now -- the name clearly wasn't a problem.
mattlutze 11y ago
It doesn't need gravitas. But the onomatopoeic and just-slightly-this-side-from-awkward feeling of it has always bugged me a little.

FussyZeus 11y ago

The old ads were great, from the early 00s? Always ended with the dude screaming YaaahooooOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Memories.

aswanson 11y ago
I always hated those ads and also thought the name was silly, even at the time. But hey, they're still here.
- wavefunction 11y ago
  The name was from a much more optimistic time in the history of the Internet, when everything was shiny and brand new and less slick and calculated.
  - FussyZeus 11y ago
    Oh please, nothing's changed. Give em a website consisting of nothing but stock photos and solid color squares and a name like Yahooify and they'd blend right in.