So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen Yahoo Directory

It’s never easy to say goodbye to an old friend. On September 26, Yahoo let its users know that it would be shutting down Yahoo Directory as well as Yahoo Education and Qwiki.

Yahoo will officially turn off the lights on Yahoo Directory on December 31, 2014. The move comes after nearly 20 years of serving as a resource to users looking to explore the Web.

Before Google There Was Yahoo Directory

In 1994, Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo started a website called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web. The website was essentially a directory of other websites on the Internet. It could be considered a very early version of the search engines we utilize daily.

In less than a year, Yahoo had received more than 1 million hits. It was clear that Yang and Filo were offering something that the masses wanted.

Yahoo Directory Blasts From the Past

As this Internet staple nears its end, it’s only right that we take a walk through time to remember some of the different faces of Yahoo Directory according to web.archive.org:

2004

2005 – 2010

2011 – 2014

While we can’t fault Yahoo for choosing to focus on other opportunities, many longtime fans and users are less than pleased with Yahoo’s decision.

Sad day for us “Old School” SEOs – The Yahoo Directory, Once The Internet’s Most Important Search Engine, To Close: http://t.co/SIjDOMSO5Y

— James Svoboda (@Realicity) September 26, 2014

Resources

Digital Marketing The Third-Party Data Deprecation Playbook

Digital Marketing Utilizing Email To Stop Fraud-eCommerce Client Fraud Case Study

Digital Marketing 21 Steps To Email Deliverability Success

Digital Marketing Email, The Weapon Against Identity Fraud

I had almost forgotten how important the Yahoo Directory was back in the late 90s. You absolutely had to be in it. RIP.

— Brian Clark (@brianclark) September 26, 2014

One of the first SEO clients I ever had literally had their e-commerce biz saved by paying for a Yahoo Directory listing back in the day.

— Matt McGee (@mattmcgee) September 26, 2014

However, there are others that believe Yahoo Directory has run its course.

Now that Yahoo has decided to sunset some of its legacy products, what is the next step for their organizational growth?

We reached out to Yahoo to get an answer to that burning question. Unfortunately, we did not receive a response. Perhaps we didn’t rank high enough on the Directory homepage?