Tech Brew Ride Home (Bonus) The Fate (And Legacy) Of Yahoo, With Harry McCracken
Oct 26, 2019
In a captivating discussion, Harry McCracken, a respected tech journalist, reflects on Yahoo's legacy, once the titan of the internet. He examines the nostalgic essence of Yahoo Groups and what their closure signifies about the fleeting nature of online communities. The conversation dives into Yahoo's identity crisis, where it faltered while trying to redefine itself amid competition from giants like Google and Facebook. McCracken highlights missed opportunities in Yahoo's tech evolution and how these elements contribute to our collective yearning for the early days of the web.
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First Yahoo Encounter
- Harry McCracken vividly remembers first encountering Yahoo in 1994.
- A colleague introduced him, and his first search hooked him.
Yahoo Directory Submission
- Brian McCullough's first website, Campus Movie Reviews, was submitted to Yahoo's directory.
- He initially believed he received a response from Jerry Yang or David Filo themselves.
Human-Curated Content
- Yahoo initially differentiated itself by human-curated content, not as a tech company.
- This approach, however, couldn't compete with search engines like AltaVista that indexed the entire web.