LZZR

August 12, 2006

Yahoo used to be a Directory

BLIP
Yahoo started as the largest human-edited directory on freaking earth and we should not forget that the ailing DMOZ used to be a popular reaction to an almost total monopoly Yahoo used to have in this market.
Gradually with volume increase this became less and less viable as a business model and Yahoo abandoned its Directory leaving only paid inclusion as the last remnance of the former gigantic and ambitious project. For some time it existed sucking results from Google (and DMOZ too?) but when they decided to compete and bought Inktomi (see Yahoo is based on Inktomi Blip) surely they added some expertise they accumulated throgh years of directory building and maintanance to their algorithms.