this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2026
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The web used to be so small that Yahoo! had real humans doing the categorizing.
Yahoo for a while was becoming the world wide web, messenger, clubs, search, email and games all engaged with on a single identity, even turned down an offer to buy Google. Then it packed it all away and went home.
Ive heard it still has a titan presence in Japan though
Yahoo Japan is actually a completely separate company.
Yahoo itself is still extremely popular in the US, just with a different demographic than we (the sort of people on the fediverse) regularly interact with. Their sports, finance, and news sites are some of the most popular on the internet. I don’t think it’s particularly relevant in the web search space these days though, and hasn’t been for a long time.
I think we don’t hear much about it because it has found a niche and is staying within it. It’s profitable, but not on an “infinite growth forever” trajectory so it rarely makes the news. Honestly kind of respectable.
My Nan was a faithful Yahoo user from her first WebTV right up to her death. I imagine she'd be exchanging all caps emails still if we'd buried her with a laptop.
I was a dmoz editor for a bit. They created the directory that Yahoo used on their site. Kind of wish directories came back.
Directories and webrings
Webrings are still a thing. I see them from time to time.
I can't remember the last time I did. Have one in mind?
Here is a whole directory of them as a starter. Many retro pages from this directory but many sites are active and get regular updates.
Indie Web Database
A few years ago while cleaning out my late grandmother's house, I found a physical book which was just a listing and description of various websites.