Abt Yahoo

It’s our 14th birthday! Take a moment to celebrate and look at the traditions that make us uniquely Yahoo!.

From humble beginnings in a trailer to our more than 70 offices around the world today, Yahoo! has certainly grown a lot since we started in 1994. As we celebrate our birthday today, we wanted to take a moment to look back at our history and get answers to the Yahoo! traditions you’ve always wondered about.




Q: Where did the Yahoo! name come from?

When Jerry and David started compiling their web directory in early 1994, it was called “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web.” In June 1994, when the site had moved beyond their circle of friends and started becoming popular, they decided it needed a shorter, catchier name. They agreed that the first two letters should be YA because the names of several software tools they had used as computer science students began with those letters. YA- names were usually acronyms, denoting “Yet Another” (as in YACC – Yet Another Compiler, Compiler”). So they hit Webster’s dictionary for ideas. When they got to the word “yahoo,” something clicked. It stood for someone who was rude, unsophisticated and vulgar, traced to Jonathan Swift’s 1726 book, Gulliver’s Travels, wherein a Yahoo was “any of a race of brutish, degraded creatures… having the form and all the vices of man.” Bingo! Just the kind of self-effacement Jerry & David appreciated. Then they needed an acronym… and came up with Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.



Q: Why does Yahoo! have an exclamation point?

The earliest renditions of Yahoo! had no exclamation point. It was added in early 1995, when we created our first logo, known as “the Jumping Y Guy.” The exclamation point was added to punctuate the sense of excitement someone had when they found what they were looking for. Filo purportedly didn’t like it very much, but agreed that the logo looked better with it. The exclamation point first appeared only on Yahoo! business cards, but was used in other places shortly thereafter.



Q: Did we ever think about changing our name to something else?

Yes – but it wasn’t a very long consideration. In April 1995, when Jerry and David accepted their first $1 million investment from Michael Moritz, partner at Sequoia Capital, they asked him whether they should consider changing the name to something more appropriate to doing business. They had concerns that Yahoo! might not be taken seriously as the company attempted to generate revenue from more traditional companies. Mike was horrified at the notion and immediately said he’d take back the check if they ever considered changing the name. And that was that.



Q: How were purple and yellow chosen as our official colors?

Folklore has it that purple came about as a result of a paint mix up. When Yahoo! took up residence in its first official office at 110 Pioneer Way in Mountain View after Jerry & David left the Stanford trailer, it was very much in need of some renovation and repair. David, known by then as Cheap Yahoo, was sent out to buy paint. He returned with several gallons of what was thought to have been gray paint. However, once everyone had painted most of a large wall under dim fluorescent lighting, it became obvious that David had instead purchased lavender. Left with gallons of purple paint, they decided that between the sunk costs and their efforts on the already-painted wall, it was just easiest to stick with purple. Some speculate that purple subsequently became associated with the brand as a result of this mishap.



The colors purple and yellow (as well as blue) were chosen when our first logo was designed. After a color book showed the combination conveyed “energy and happiness” – it was a fit! As Yahoo! began to formalize marketing efforts, we narrowed the colors down to purple and yellow because the two colors contrasted well, were bright and fun, and captured our brand personality well. The colors weren’t used on the site (red was selected instead), but “read” well everywhere else – on cubes, stickers, t-shirts, Frisbees, yo-yos, kazoos, cars, trains, parachutes, taxis, etc.




Q: Why do we have stars as our nameplates?

Our cube stars stem from Yahoo!’s long tradition of celebrating achievement. Back in August 1996, when Yahoo! was just 100 employees, Yahoo! introduced Yahoo! Los Angeles, the second of a series of local city guides. In honor of the launch, a grass-roots team created a “Hollywood Walk of Fame” in the halls of 3400 Central Expressway in Santa Clara (Yahoo!’s third office), placing large gold stars on the floor with every employee’s name on it. At the end of the day, everyone spontaneously picked up their star and hung it in or outside their cube. Et voila! A new company tradition was born. Ever since, every new Yahoo has started their first day with a gold star outside their cube wall.



Q: What are the origins of the Yahoo! yodel? Why a yodel?

In early 1996, our original marketing team conducted consumer research on the Yahoo! brand with help from Black Rocket, our first advertising agency. They found that people who weren't familiar with what Yahoo was could at least easily remember the name. The team therefore tried to come up with ways to use the name distinctively to resonate with people across all age groups, languages, and cultures (as opposed to, say, a cowboy "yahoo!" shout). With a miniscule advertising budget and the inability to execute massive brand marketing campaigns, they knew they’d have to rely on a clever mnemonic device that could stick in people's minds to maximize recall. One of the creative partners at Black Rocket therefore recommended a yodel to capture Yahoo!’s fun, open and iconoclastic spirit. We then hired yodeling cowboy Wylie Gustafson to record the yodel, which aired as part of our “Do You Yahoo!?” tagline in our first television commercial, “Pond,” in May 1996.



Q: Where were our first offices and what were they like?

Once Jerry and David incorporated Yahoo! and started hiring employees, they took up residence in Mountain View (110 Pioneer Way). Our first building was modest and not exactly spacious, high-end real estate. Every time it rained, water would pour through the roof into buckets and trash cans and employees were three to an office with one phone between them. They later moved to a location in Sunnyvale (609 Vaqueros Avenue), less than a mile from our current location. However, there was still a shortage of available space. The options for holding a meeting were the sole conference room, the lobby, the outside patio, or the garage/storage room. Apparently having enough conference rooms has always been a Yahoo! issue.



Q: Is there a story behind the candy buckets in our lobbies?

Indeed – a cute one. In April 1996, when Yahoo! For Good Scrum Product Manager Erin Moore joined the company as our receptionist in our 609 Vaqueros Ave. office in Sunnyvale (Yahoo!’s second official office), she found herself isolated from the 50 other Yahoos crunching away on building and maintaining the Yahoo! site. To lure them to the front desk for conversation, she put out a bowl of candy, knowing all Yahoos are suckers for an afternoon sugar rush. First, it was jelly beans because it was Easter; then later she put out chocolate, gum and mints. This proved to be a very successful tactic, and she found she was no longer lonely. When she moved to a new role within the company and therefore no longer supplied the candy, there was an employee uprising. Seems the sugar fix had become part of the Yahoo! day and a much expected perk. Ever since, the company has provided candy buckets at every one of its global reception desks – apparently as much for employees as guests!



Q: When and how did the free coffee tradition start?

Yahoos in many offices are well caffeinated today as a result of a well-timed delay in Jerry & David’s 1997 holiday gift. In January 1998, the company bought an espresso machine and hired a barista to make coffee drinks as a treat for employees at the 3400 Central Expressway headquarters (our third office). Yahoos, well-trained at this point to be very frugal, were hot and bothered that the company would hire someone full-time to brew up lattes. To squelch complaints, Jerry and David decided to extend the free coffee service to employees as a belated holiday gift, which they hadn’t had time to get together the month before. The free coffee service therefore became the official 1997 holiday gift and set the groundwork for the espressos, lattes, mochas, etc. Yahoos would subsist on for years to come.



Q: How long have Jerry and David been giving holiday gifts?


Jerry and David have been delivering holiday gifts to Yahoos since 1996. The first gift was hand-delivered to more than 100 employees… and the most recent was sent to more than 7,600 worldwide. Here are the items Jerry and David carried in their holiday sacks over the years:

o 1996 - Purple fleece jacket

o 1997 – Free coffee drinks

o 1998 – Purple blanket

o 1999 – Yahoo!opoly game

o 2000 – Purple sleeping bag

o 2001 – Compaq MP3 player

o 2002 – Gray fleece jacket

o 2003 – Blue wool "snowflake" blanket


o 2004 – Purple gym bag

o 2005 – Silver jacket

o 2006 – $100 to match to the charity of your choice

o 2007 – Black fleece jacket

o 2008 – $50 to the charity of your choice



Q: How did tchotchkes become so popular at Yahoo!?

When a company doesn’t have deep marketing pockets, it has to get creative! Our various tchotckes over the years stemmed from a desire to generate consumer awareness in unique, memorable and, most importantly, frugal ways. Some early examples include oval stickers produced for nearly every vertical property, yoyos, license plate frames, t-shirts for just about everything, etc. Some tchotchkes found their way to unusual places, thanks to enterprising Yahoos. For example, when Yahoos would travel, they would place strategically place product and Do You Yahoo!? stickers in conspicuous places to help generate buzz. One Yahoo! traveling in Australia reported seeing a sticker on the back of a semi on a dusty highway, long before Yahoo! had reached the continent.



Q: Why do we have Sheepshead on Yahoo! Games?

Sheepshead is a German card game similar to pinochle and euchre that is popular in Wisconsin. David Filo’s family has roots in Wisconsin and Sheepshead is a beloved tradition in the extended Filo family. However, with family members scattered across the country, they found it difficult to find others with whom to play the game. David therefore taught the Yahoo! Games engineers team how to play Sheepshead and had them add it to our roster of online card games.



Q: How long have we been celebrating Oktoberfest?


Oktoberfest became a Yahoo! tradition in 1996, when David Filo brought in sausages from Louisiana and barbecued them for the 100 or so employees and everyone was given a glass mug for sampling the suds. The party planners were exceedingly clever and ordered mugs that said “First Annual Oktoberfest” in order to ensure that the party would become an annual event.



Q: Why do we have a purple cow in our headquarters lobby?

Visitors to Lobby D reception in Sunnyvale are first greeted by a purple and yellow cow saddled with a computer monitor and keyboard. The cow, known as Yahoo! Moo Mail, was an entry into the CowParade, the world’s largest public art event. Known as the world's first Internet-connected cow, she first appeared CowParade New York in 2000, allowing visitors to South Street Seaport to check their Yahoo! Mail accounts. Now a permanent resident at Yahoo! headquarters, she was given temporary furlough to participate in CowParade Atlanta in 2003.



Q: Did Yahoo! have sports teams in the early days?

In addition to the ever-present foosball tournaments, early Yahoos were fans of competitive sports to blow off steam. We had bowling teams, ultimate Frisbee teams, a softball team, etc. In fact, on night in 1997, the Yahoo! softball team played against Excite, who brought along two ringers: Barry and Bobby Bonds. While Barry hit a home run, Senior Lead Surfer Michelle Heimburger, Yahoo! pitcher and employee number 112, struck Bobby Bonds out and we eventually won the game 15-14.



Q: Speaking of foosball, how did that tradition get started?

When we were at our first Sunnyvale office (609 Vaqueros), Yahoos used to throw darts to blow off steam. After we went "corporate" following the IPO and were preparing to move to our larger Santa Clara facilities (3400 Central Expressway), someone in HR decided darts might not be the best leisure activity for the new building. Privacy Manager Joe MacFarland jokingly suggested before the move that Yahoo! invest in a foosball table instead. Lo and behold, there it was! Once that table (a cheap, plastic model) became too well-used to play anymore, he convinced the powers-that-be to buy a real, new Tornado foosball table -- which has become the staple for Yahoo! offices in the U.S.



Q: When was the first time a headline ran on the home page?

In 1995, we posted the news story on the home page that the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia had passed away. Fast forward to today when we’re now the #1 news site on the Web.