Yahoo announces that it will close Yahoo Directory on December 31 this year

Absrtact: 1994, Yahoo! The lab at Stanford University was born. The first service that Jerry Yang and Philo started was a tool for sorting and querying websites, and the tool became the gateway for Internet users to find websites and information. This is

1994, Yahoo! The lab at Stanford University was born. The first service that Jerry Yang and Philo started was a tool for sorting and querying websites, and the tool became the gateway for Internet users to find websites and information. This is the embryonic form of Yahoo directory.

Today, Yahoo announces that it will close Yahoo Directory on December 31 this year. It was also closed with Yahoo Education and Qwiki, qwiki a video-sharing app that Yahoo bought 50 million dollars last July. Yahoo said: "Although we are still committed to connecting users with their interest in information, but our business has evolved." Advertisers on Yahoo directory will be moved to new services and more details can be exchanged. ”

In fact, Yahoo directory can be considered as the first search engine, but also Google's dominant search service before the most important, the best use of search engine services. Unlike later Google, Yahoo Directory relies on human resources to evaluate the site, by briefly describing it subjectively, and then sorting it into categories. In the 94 and 95, the system was very effective. On the one hand, the Web page on the Internet is still very small, relying on the human to classify is feasible; On the other hand, the technology that relies entirely on the algorithm to search the website is immature, which makes the service experience of InfoSeek and other search engine service not good.

But Google, which appeared in 1998, changed all this. Although it borrowed from the InfoSeek search engine technology, but in the algorithm has made great progress. Under the new technology wave, Yahoo directory relies on the limitations of manpower immediately appear. It's like looking for a book in the library and relying on Yahoo directory you can only get a 25-word description of the book, and relying on Google you can almost find every line in the book. So, in terms of search results, Google is more efficient and more relevant.

In 2000, Yahoo chose to work with Google to use Google's search results as an "alternative result" for its own search results. 2003, Yahoo bought Inktomi. This is also an old search engine, at that time has been Google hit the dying, and Yahoo to take a low-cost. Since then, Yahoo has started its own crawler search engine algorithm, but also ended its cooperation with Google. But Yahoo failed in the end because in 2003 Google was unstoppable.

In fact, the search engine service has declined since Yahoo's share price plunged in 2004. And Yahoo's massive financial and human effort to emulate Google actually accelerates its overall decline. To know Yahoo is still a good player in the content, its mainstream advertisers and Google is not too much conflict. And then CEO Samuel made the wrong direction. Today, Yahoo directory is really a dead day.