Yahoo! is a popular search engine that was created by David Filo and Jerry Yang in January 1994 originally called "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" in a directory format. It was renamed to YAHOO in 1995 after the pet name David's girlfriend at Stanford University called him.

The directory format, which still exists, although somewhat hidden is comparable to the DMOZ project and contains staff reviewed descriptions of each categorized site. Getting your site listed in the directory used to be free for everyone, but for some reason they began charging several hundred dollars for submission and annual fees to remain listed in the directory.

In my personal opinion as an early user of Yahoo, the replacement of the directory with a more general search (powered by Google) and charging of excessive listing fees has ruined the image and product in the minds of many. Eventually, Yahoo began using its own search engine technology. However, this did not last long, as Yahoo! Search is now powered instead by Bing.

Below is a short video about Yahoo! ...

Still, there is much more to Yahoo! then its search and directory features. Yahoo! Mail provides free web based email services, Yahoo! Messenger provides free chat and a whole lineup of other services.