What started as a student hobby has evolved into a global brand that's changed the way people communicate with each other and access, share and create information.

From campus trailer to global trailblazer
The two founders of Yahoo!, David Filo and Jerry Yang, were Ph.D. candidates in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University when they began building their guide to the web in February 1994 as a way to keep track of their personal interests on the Internet. Before long, they were spending more time on their home-brewed lists of favorite links than on their doctoral dissertations. Eventually Jerry and David's lists became too long and unwieldy, so they broke them out into categories. When the categories became too full, they developed subcategories-and the core concept behind Yahoo! was born.

Jerry and David soon found that they weren't alone in wanting a single place to find useful websites. Soon hundreds of people were accessing their guide from well beyond their Stanford trailer. Word spread from friends to what quickly became a significant, loyal audience throughout the closely knit Internet community. Yahoo! celebrated its first million-hit day in the fall of 1994, translating to almost 100,000 unique visitors.

What's in a name, anyway?
The site started out as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," but received a new moniker with the help of a dictionary. The name Yahoo! is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle," but Jerry and David insist they selected it because they liked the general definition of a yahoo: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth."

Up next: Web 2.0 and beyond
From these humble beginnings, Yahoo! has grown into the world's most essential Internet service for consumers and businesses. A leading provider of comprehensive online products and services worldwide, Yahoo! is the number one Internet brand and the most trafficked online destination. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, Yahoo!'s global network includes 25 world properties and is available in 13 languages.

Of course, what's really cool about Yahoo! is where we're headed. We believe the biggest ideas are still to come. Yahoo! is well-positioned for the future with innovative thinking, growing revenues, nearly ten thousand talented employees worldwide and new opportunities every day. It's an exciting time for you to become part of the Yahoo! team.