Yahoo Directory Being Shut Down

You might not have even heard of Yahoo Directory if you’ve been using the internet for less than a decade. Those who were online twenty years ago. 1994, would probably remember Yahoo Directory. It was founded at a time when search engines weren’t popular. Basically it was a list of websites curated by Yahoo co-founders Jerry Lang and David Filo. Since search engines weren’t good enough curated lists like these were heavily relied upon by internet users, which is why Yahoo Directory’s popularity skyrocketed.

A lot has changed since 1994. Smartwatches these days are more powerful than the computers available back then. Search engines have significantly progressed, with Google leading the market, thus eliminating the need for curated website lists.

Yahoo Directory has been kept around even though it made no sense after search engines replaced curated lists. Now though the company sees it fit to shut the service down. It has been officially announced that Yahoo Directory, once the very core of Yahoo’s business, will be shut down on December 31st, 2014.

The company is also shutting down a couple of other services, including Yahoo Education, which will bite the dust on September 30th. The Qwiki app, which allowed users to create short movies with content from their camera roll, will be shut down on November 1st.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Web
Tags: Yahoo