1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,840 Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:08,880 Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 3 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:17,560 Speaker 1: tech stuff from how stuff works dot com. Well, hello there, 4 00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:20,079 Speaker 1: I almost didn't see you. Welcome to tech stuff. My 5 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:22,520 Speaker 1: name is Chris Polattin. I'm an editor at how stuff 6 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:25,960 Speaker 1: works dot com. Sitting across me, as usual, is senior 7 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:32,120 Speaker 1: writer Jonathan Strickland. Hey, they nice. You're gonna get sued 8 00:00:32,120 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: for that. No, that's just the tune. They can't get me. 9 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:40,160 Speaker 1: I'm untouchable. Okay, all right, well you know, don't take 10 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:44,320 Speaker 1: that as a challenge. Backtracking already. So today we're going 11 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:47,479 Speaker 1: to talk about a It's interesting. We're gonna talk about 12 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: a company that, as Chris was saying before we start 13 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:53,720 Speaker 1: recording a few months ago, we might call this like 14 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:58,280 Speaker 1: a eulogy for a company that is on its way 15 00:00:58,320 --> 00:01:02,840 Speaker 1: to to crumbling to pieces. But now there's actually a 16 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:07,160 Speaker 1: new hope. I'm wearing my Star Wars lego shirt and 17 00:01:07,200 --> 00:01:10,679 Speaker 1: I think that's where he got that fight. Um. So, yeah, 18 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:12,960 Speaker 1: this is something that people have brought up on a 19 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,960 Speaker 1: couple of occasions, and I don't know, we never really 20 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:17,959 Speaker 1: talked about it. I think maybe we haven't talked about 21 00:01:17,959 --> 00:01:20,000 Speaker 1: it yet simply because it was kind of sad. Yeah, 22 00:01:20,040 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: it's the story of Yahoo and and what it is, 23 00:01:23,640 --> 00:01:27,240 Speaker 1: how it became what it is, and it's it's rocky, 24 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:30,080 Speaker 1: rocky past because this is one of those companies where 25 00:01:30,840 --> 00:01:34,240 Speaker 1: you know, there was a meteoric rise in this company 26 00:01:34,319 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 1: and then a decline and then a sharper decline and 27 00:01:38,600 --> 00:01:42,560 Speaker 1: then and an era that was marked with lots of 28 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:47,800 Speaker 1: of unpredictable change and uncertainty and now wait what Yeah, 29 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:51,720 Speaker 1: and then in two thousand twelve, Uh, just as things 30 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:56,800 Speaker 1: were really looking pretty grim, there's now a little optimism 31 00:01:56,840 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: at least about the possibility that this company could find 32 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:04,320 Speaker 1: it's it's footing again. And it it helps if we 33 00:02:04,360 --> 00:02:06,640 Speaker 1: actually just start at the very beginning and just kind 34 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:09,320 Speaker 1: of work our way to present day. I think, yeah, yeah, 35 00:02:09,440 --> 00:02:13,919 Speaker 1: and uh, like with many of our tech stories, and 36 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:18,520 Speaker 1: that's been people and companies. Um, there are these parallels, 37 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:23,200 Speaker 1: these weird uncanny parallels that pop up. So not just parallels, 38 00:02:23,240 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: but relationships as well. Yeah, it's funny because on a 39 00:02:27,440 --> 00:02:29,760 Speaker 1: podcast where we were talking about a couple other guys 40 00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:32,799 Speaker 1: in this similar role, We're gonna start this story with 41 00:02:33,639 --> 00:02:37,560 Speaker 1: two guys who met at Stanford University in California and 42 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:40,960 Speaker 1: started a major web property. Yeah, but not that one. 43 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:45,280 Speaker 1: Another one. So one of those is David Filo and 44 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:48,800 Speaker 1: the other was Jerry Young And uh, I really like 45 00:02:48,919 --> 00:02:52,880 Speaker 1: the websites original name. Oh, yes it was. It was 46 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:55,000 Speaker 1: what was it, Jerry and David's Guide to the world 47 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:59,320 Speaker 1: Wide Web. Yes, that's a that's pretty pretty snappy. Yeah, well, 48 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:01,080 Speaker 1: they certain they wouldn't have been able to fit it 49 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:04,480 Speaker 1: in that jingle that you were just so accurately singing. Yeah, 50 00:03:04,520 --> 00:03:06,799 Speaker 1: that would have been very different. I was so off, 51 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:09,639 Speaker 1: I don't think I even hit a single note. Thank 52 00:03:09,639 --> 00:03:13,040 Speaker 1: you anyway. So, yes, Young and Violo at the time, 53 00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:17,520 Speaker 1: we're both in the PhD program at Stanford University Electrical Engineering. 54 00:03:17,639 --> 00:03:21,680 Speaker 1: That's correct, and uh, and they decided to start a 55 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:25,240 Speaker 1: personal project. They were both interested in the Worldwide Web, 56 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: which was still very very young. Yes, you know, they 57 00:03:29,639 --> 00:03:34,560 Speaker 1: got to remember that the Web, in fact was maybe 58 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:38,160 Speaker 1: what like two years old more or less. There wasn't 59 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:40,880 Speaker 1: much of the web then, because the Web and the 60 00:03:40,920 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: Internet are, of course, are two different things. The Web 61 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:45,120 Speaker 1: is built on top of the Internet, so the web 62 00:03:45,200 --> 00:03:48,440 Speaker 1: is just one way that we access the Internet and 63 00:03:48,560 --> 00:03:52,240 Speaker 1: use the Internet well. So a ninety four there were 64 00:03:52,920 --> 00:03:56,680 Speaker 1: some interesting websites that were around, and most of them 65 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:01,080 Speaker 1: were generated by either research facilities or students who were 66 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: really interested in this new platform. There were a few 67 00:04:04,240 --> 00:04:06,760 Speaker 1: companies that were kind of dipping their toe in the 68 00:04:06,800 --> 00:04:09,720 Speaker 1: world Wide Web, but very few at this time. This 69 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:12,480 Speaker 1: was the era where companies. If you you walked into 70 00:04:12,520 --> 00:04:16,040 Speaker 1: the corporate headquarters of some major company and said, why 71 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:19,000 Speaker 1: don't you start a site on the Worldwide Web, you'll 72 00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:21,800 Speaker 1: be one of the first, and they would go, first, 73 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:24,280 Speaker 1: what are you talking about? Second, why would we why 74 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:26,200 Speaker 1: would do that? Yeah? Why will we ever spend the 75 00:04:26,279 --> 00:04:29,000 Speaker 1: time and effort to do that? What would we do there? 76 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,160 Speaker 1: Because you know, internet commerce didn't exist yet on at 77 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:36,800 Speaker 1: least as far as the Worldwide Web entity. Uh, but 78 00:04:37,120 --> 00:04:39,719 Speaker 1: you started to see some stuff like the BBS culture, 79 00:04:39,880 --> 00:04:43,000 Speaker 1: the bulletin board system culture can seep in and and 80 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: usenet culture as well. So this idea of groups of 81 00:04:46,279 --> 00:04:50,960 Speaker 1: people who had similar interests forming communities online and building 82 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:54,479 Speaker 1: websites or at least a web page that represents that 83 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:58,839 Speaker 1: kind of interest, and Young and Filo both found lots 84 00:04:58,839 --> 00:05:01,400 Speaker 1: of websites really in interesting, and then they started to 85 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,720 Speaker 1: kind of curate this for themselves. Originally it was just 86 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:07,920 Speaker 1: for them, just for the two of them. Really, they 87 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:11,000 Speaker 1: were kind of creating these these categories of websites that 88 00:05:11,120 --> 00:05:15,120 Speaker 1: they thought were interesting. And as the web grew, as 89 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:18,640 Speaker 1: more people began to add content to the web, these 90 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:21,599 Speaker 1: categories got larger and larger, so they started to break 91 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:26,840 Speaker 1: them into subcategories so that they could easily find content 92 00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:30,560 Speaker 1: that related to specific interests. And then they realized that 93 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:33,039 Speaker 1: their friends also thought this was a really useful tool, 94 00:05:34,080 --> 00:05:37,279 Speaker 1: so they began to roll this out as more of 95 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:42,080 Speaker 1: a service. An idea of the web is this potentially 96 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:47,920 Speaker 1: limitless frontier, which means that all the content you could 97 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:51,200 Speaker 1: ever want could exist there, but finding it is going 98 00:05:51,240 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 1: to be tough. Yahoo, which is ultimately the name that 99 00:05:55,120 --> 00:05:58,400 Speaker 1: they settled on, would be a service that would allow 100 00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:01,960 Speaker 1: you to find content it that's relevant to your interests 101 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:05,320 Speaker 1: and so that you don't have to just you know, 102 00:06:05,760 --> 00:06:08,560 Speaker 1: jump out into the World Wide Web and wander around 103 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:14,119 Speaker 1: aimlessly hoping that you find stuff that's relevant to you. Well, again, 104 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:17,719 Speaker 1: this was you know, the search engines as we know 105 00:06:17,839 --> 00:06:21,480 Speaker 1: them now didn't exist at that point, so this was 106 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:24,480 Speaker 1: This was one of those things where it just I 107 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:26,840 Speaker 1: think it just sort of seemed obvious to them that 108 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:30,080 Speaker 1: it was an opportunity. Um, so they dropped out of school, 109 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:33,080 Speaker 1: which is important to remember. Don't drop out of your 110 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:36,760 Speaker 1: PhD program kids, right, So unless unless you're going to 111 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:39,279 Speaker 1: become a multibillionaire. Well they did, they did take a 112 00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:42,360 Speaker 1: two million dollar investment. Well, and and they started thinking. 113 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:44,480 Speaker 1: They came up with the name Yahoo, which is technically 114 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:47,400 Speaker 1: an acronym, is it? Yes? Do you know what it 115 00:06:47,400 --> 00:06:53,560 Speaker 1: stands for? Yet another hierarchical, officious oracle. Interesting that's according 116 00:06:53,600 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 1: to the Yahoo website, by the way, because I would 117 00:06:56,480 --> 00:06:58,719 Speaker 1: not have I would not have believed it had I 118 00:06:58,839 --> 00:07:01,600 Speaker 1: not seen it on Yahoo itself. Okay, well that's that's 119 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:05,440 Speaker 1: funny because I read that they were really excited about 120 00:07:05,520 --> 00:07:08,719 Speaker 1: its definition. Yes, this is also true. They they I 121 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:12,040 Speaker 1: think the acronym was kind of a retroactive sort of thing. 122 00:07:12,520 --> 00:07:15,160 Speaker 1: They liked the word Yahoo in the sense of the 123 00:07:15,200 --> 00:07:18,440 Speaker 1: definition of it being kind of an uncouth or rude 124 00:07:19,080 --> 00:07:22,240 Speaker 1: type of person, as in, as in the phrase get 125 00:07:22,240 --> 00:07:26,240 Speaker 1: a load of this Yahoo? Yeah serious? Yeah, well I 126 00:07:26,280 --> 00:07:33,000 Speaker 1: mean these yeah, these are these guys were sort of informal, Well, 127 00:07:33,040 --> 00:07:34,560 Speaker 1: I mean it was the birth of the web, was 128 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:37,400 Speaker 1: the birth of the web culture. And you know, those 129 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,280 Speaker 1: early days of the web people often were these guys. 130 00:07:40,320 --> 00:07:43,160 Speaker 1: They often equate the early days they being people in 131 00:07:43,200 --> 00:07:48,000 Speaker 1: general so vague. Some people referred to those early days 132 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:50,640 Speaker 1: of the webs like the the the digital equivalent of 133 00:07:50,680 --> 00:07:53,480 Speaker 1: the wild West, like anything goes and no rules were 134 00:07:53,560 --> 00:07:56,680 Speaker 1: defined yet, so anything was it was possible. Well, if 135 00:07:56,720 --> 00:08:00,720 Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, weren't weren't there titles the chief? Yeah, yes, 136 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,640 Speaker 1: and uh. And in ninety four they also before they 137 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:08,360 Speaker 1: before the company had really become a company, it existed 138 00:08:08,440 --> 00:08:13,480 Speaker 1: essentially on their own personal machines. Young had his His 139 00:08:13,680 --> 00:08:20,320 Speaker 1: was named Akabono and Filos was called Konnashiki, and both 140 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:23,400 Speaker 1: of these were named after sumo wrestlers. Of course, none 141 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:26,360 Speaker 1: of that is a joke, that is all true. This 142 00:08:26,400 --> 00:08:31,240 Speaker 1: is again informing you behind of the the personalities behind 143 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:36,000 Speaker 1: Yahoo and what sort of of thing. Yahoo started off 144 00:08:36,080 --> 00:08:39,319 Speaker 1: as being versus what it would become, because it had 145 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:42,920 Speaker 1: a very interesting evolution. It started off as this very 146 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:48,120 Speaker 1: quirky approach to curating information that's on the web, and 147 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:52,600 Speaker 1: I think that had a lot of appeal among people 148 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:56,080 Speaker 1: of around around the same age as young and flo 149 00:08:56,360 --> 00:08:59,800 Speaker 1: and younger really the which age of people that we 150 00:08:59,840 --> 00:09:03,200 Speaker 1: think of as being really Internet savvy and passionate about 151 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:06,480 Speaker 1: the Internet at the time. Back in the early nineties. 152 00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:13,440 Speaker 1: Um so they start pushing Yahoo and by the fall 153 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:16,600 Speaker 1: of ninety four, this is not even a full year, right, 154 00:09:16,720 --> 00:09:20,680 Speaker 1: they started in ninety four. By the fall of ninety four, 155 00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:25,640 Speaker 1: Yahoo had had the word of Yahoo had spread beyond Stanford, 156 00:09:26,240 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: and it had become something of a go to site 157 00:09:30,440 --> 00:09:32,520 Speaker 1: for lots of people. And in the fall of ninety 158 00:09:32,520 --> 00:09:38,320 Speaker 1: four they had their first million hit day. So yeah, 159 00:09:38,440 --> 00:09:40,720 Speaker 1: less than a year old, in the early days of 160 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:43,000 Speaker 1: the web when most people don't even know what the 161 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:47,040 Speaker 1: web is, it had its first day to hit over 162 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:51,640 Speaker 1: a million hits. Uh. That actually boils down to about 163 00:09:51,679 --> 00:09:54,800 Speaker 1: a hundred thousand unique visitors. So that meant that people 164 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:57,720 Speaker 1: would go to Yahoo multiple times in a day. So 165 00:09:58,360 --> 00:10:02,400 Speaker 1: you know, a unique visitor is one person, that's that's who, 166 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:05,600 Speaker 1: that's a unique visitor, right, But a unique visitor can 167 00:10:05,640 --> 00:10:10,280 Speaker 1: generate multiple hits by visiting the page several times. Uh. 168 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:13,120 Speaker 1: So that's the difference between those two. So a hundred 169 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:16,720 Speaker 1: thousand people, essentially generating a million hits on Yahoo within 170 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:21,360 Speaker 1: the first year of it being a thing. And in 171 00:10:22,679 --> 00:10:27,760 Speaker 1: in March, Uh, yeah, who made the step of incorporation 172 00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:31,480 Speaker 1: so it became an official company. That's when Young and 173 00:10:31,480 --> 00:10:37,360 Speaker 1: Filo decided to uh skidaddle from the world of academy. 174 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:43,160 Speaker 1: And they also hired someone to be the CEO. Yes, 175 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:46,679 Speaker 1: because Young and Filo we're not business guys. These guys 176 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:51,200 Speaker 1: were electrical engineer students. So they they said, you know, 177 00:10:51,280 --> 00:10:53,760 Speaker 1: we need to get someone who knows the business side 178 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:57,880 Speaker 1: of running a corporation. We can handle technical stuff like crazy, 179 00:10:57,960 --> 00:11:01,079 Speaker 1: but you know, when it comes down to actually business decisions, 180 00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:03,560 Speaker 1: we should get someone who really knows what they're doing. 181 00:11:03,559 --> 00:11:07,400 Speaker 1: And so they hired a guy named Tim Coogle. And 182 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:11,120 Speaker 1: uh he was someone who came from Motorola. He had 183 00:11:11,120 --> 00:11:15,079 Speaker 1: worked at Motorole. He was also a graduate of Stanford. 184 00:11:16,040 --> 00:11:17,760 Speaker 1: That will not be the last time we've heard the 185 00:11:17,840 --> 00:11:20,760 Speaker 1: name of that academic institution before the end of this podcast. 186 00:11:21,360 --> 00:11:24,160 Speaker 1: And uh and, like Chris said, they did also secure 187 00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:29,240 Speaker 1: two million dollars in funding from Sequoia Capital, which, um 188 00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:33,000 Speaker 1: seems small by today's standards, but you know that was 189 00:11:33,160 --> 00:11:35,480 Speaker 1: it was a new thing, and the web was a 190 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:39,280 Speaker 1: young entity, and uh it was enough to get them going. 191 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:41,520 Speaker 1: They actually got a second round of funding in the 192 00:11:41,520 --> 00:11:45,160 Speaker 1: fall of m and also they hired a guy named 193 00:11:45,200 --> 00:11:48,920 Speaker 1: Jeffrey Mallett to be the chief operating officer. And Mallett 194 00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:53,160 Speaker 1: came from Novelle. He was actually out of their consumer 195 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:57,760 Speaker 1: division for a little product called word Perfect. I feel 196 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:01,520 Speaker 1: like I've heard of that somewhere, man, Okay, short tangent, 197 00:12:01,960 --> 00:12:05,960 Speaker 1: just a short tangent people. Word Perfect is to this 198 00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:10,960 Speaker 1: day my favorite word processing program I've ever used. Specifically, 199 00:12:11,960 --> 00:12:14,880 Speaker 1: weren't well, We're Perfect five point one was great. We're 200 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:17,240 Speaker 1: Perfect four point two is what I cut my teeth on. 201 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:21,240 Speaker 1: As far as word processing goes. It's sad to say 202 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:26,040 Speaker 1: that I still can remember the the keyboard shortcuts to 203 00:12:26,120 --> 00:12:30,440 Speaker 1: do things like bold and underline spell check, and I 204 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:33,160 Speaker 1: have to stop myself from doing them whenever I'm using 205 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:35,600 Speaker 1: word although I guess technically I think there is a 206 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:38,800 Speaker 1: way I can set it so that those old key 207 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:42,800 Speaker 1: strokes are the same. You know, you can actually do 208 00:12:42,960 --> 00:12:46,199 Speaker 1: that with some versions of words. Anyway, I don't dare 209 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:50,880 Speaker 1: do that for fear of becoming too dependent upon it. Anyway, 210 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:56,320 Speaker 1: tangent over. So yeah, that that following they get their 211 00:12:56,360 --> 00:12:58,480 Speaker 1: second round of funding, things are looking pretty good for 212 00:12:58,520 --> 00:13:02,320 Speaker 1: this young startup. I mean again, it's starting nine looking 213 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 1: up UH and in ninety six. I mean, this is 214 00:13:05,400 --> 00:13:07,520 Speaker 1: lightning fast really when you compare it to some of 215 00:13:07,520 --> 00:13:10,960 Speaker 1: the other UH tech companies that are out there, like 216 00:13:11,080 --> 00:13:16,400 Speaker 1: let's say Facebook, for example, April, they launched their I 217 00:13:16,559 --> 00:13:21,400 Speaker 1: p O initial public offering. At that time, they had 218 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:26,960 Speaker 1: forty nine employees and when they launched the I p O, 219 00:13:27,080 --> 00:13:31,640 Speaker 1: the stock price was valued at thirteen dollars a share. Now, 220 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:38,319 Speaker 1: Yahoo stock has had probably one of the most dramatic 221 00:13:39,240 --> 00:13:43,000 Speaker 1: histories I've seen for a company that managed to survive 222 00:13:43,480 --> 00:13:50,800 Speaker 1: some massive, massive problems. So remember this company launches well 223 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,920 Speaker 1: before the dot com bubble burst, because that that happened 224 00:13:53,920 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: in two thousand one. Well, I would say that Yahoo's 225 00:13:57,760 --> 00:14:02,880 Speaker 1: meteoric rise probably was part of what built the the 226 00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:05,720 Speaker 1: tech bubble in the first place. It definitely helps itself. 227 00:14:05,760 --> 00:14:09,520 Speaker 1: It definitely helped precipitate the bubble bursting because the valuation 228 00:14:09,559 --> 00:14:14,400 Speaker 1: of Yahoo got out of hand. At its highest from 229 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:18,680 Speaker 1: what I can tell, on January third, two thousand, stock 230 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 1: was valued Remember it launched at thirteen dollars a share. 231 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:24,480 Speaker 1: On January third, two thousand, it was valued at a 232 00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:30,600 Speaker 1: hundred eighteen dollars seventy five cents a share. Yeah, and 233 00:14:30,680 --> 00:14:33,120 Speaker 1: keep in mind also that yah Yahoo stock, I think 234 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:38,680 Speaker 1: a split five times, so that also is something to 235 00:14:38,760 --> 00:14:42,120 Speaker 1: keep in mind. But then the lowest it was valued 236 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:46,720 Speaker 1: came just a year later in two thousand one. So 237 00:14:46,800 --> 00:14:50,000 Speaker 1: in two thousand at its highest one dollars seventy five 238 00:14:50,040 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: cents a share, at it's lowest four dollars five cents 239 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:57,440 Speaker 1: in two thousand one. That's obviously after the bubble burst, 240 00:14:57,680 --> 00:15:00,400 Speaker 1: the dot com bubble burst, and this company that was 241 00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:06,120 Speaker 1: worth a huge amount of money saw that value escape 242 00:15:06,720 --> 00:15:10,400 Speaker 1: in just a few months time. Uh. Currently, as of 243 00:15:10,400 --> 00:15:13,760 Speaker 1: the recording of this podcast, which is in mid August, 244 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:20,400 Speaker 1: it's valued at fourteen dollars cents per share, so over 245 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:23,760 Speaker 1: what its initial public offering was, but nowhere close to 246 00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:28,280 Speaker 1: its peak post splits post splits. Yeah, you have to 247 00:15:28,280 --> 00:15:31,280 Speaker 1: figure that into but a hundred dollars less than at 248 00:15:31,320 --> 00:15:34,920 Speaker 1: its peak is a big deal. But they were definitely 249 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:38,280 Speaker 1: Jerry and David were definitely onto something because within two 250 00:15:38,360 --> 00:15:42,280 Speaker 1: years of their you know, being engineering students, all of 251 00:15:42,320 --> 00:15:45,760 Speaker 1: a sudden, they were multimillionaires, which is pretty cool. Yeah, 252 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:49,040 Speaker 1: you gotta you know, getting back to the mid nineties 253 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:52,440 Speaker 1: when this I p O goes out, Yeah, they were 254 00:15:53,280 --> 00:15:56,720 Speaker 1: they were definitely riding high. I mean, their their company 255 00:15:56,880 --> 00:16:00,240 Speaker 1: was a success, and they continued to build on it. 256 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:03,200 Speaker 1: They weren't you know, just curating content. They started to 257 00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:07,560 Speaker 1: add more services. Um, they created the Yahoo dot com 258 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:11,960 Speaker 1: personalized home page approach, the my Yahoo Yeah approach. So 259 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:14,440 Speaker 1: they sort of became one of the earliest portals because 260 00:16:14,480 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: you'd get your news and your weather where you were 261 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:20,440 Speaker 1: very good. Yeah, a portal being like, you know, your 262 00:16:20,480 --> 00:16:23,640 Speaker 1: your snapshot view of what is going on on the 263 00:16:23,640 --> 00:16:26,640 Speaker 1: web and in the world on any given day, so 264 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:29,640 Speaker 1: go ahead, portal, you know, like a door. So it 265 00:16:29,680 --> 00:16:32,640 Speaker 1: was your door to the internet. Yeah, and this is 266 00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:35,560 Speaker 1: very similar to what companies had been doing for a 267 00:16:35,560 --> 00:16:38,320 Speaker 1: while the uh you know, we talked about it in 268 00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:41,440 Speaker 1: our other podcasts, things like A O L when A 269 00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:43,960 Speaker 1: O L was doing so you would get your connection 270 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:46,360 Speaker 1: to the internet through a O L and a O 271 00:16:46,520 --> 00:16:49,160 Speaker 1: L would create this portal that was kind of again 272 00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:52,160 Speaker 1: a snapshot, as a O L saw it, of what 273 00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:54,280 Speaker 1: was going on in the Web and in the world, 274 00:16:54,680 --> 00:16:58,280 Speaker 1: and that was your initial introduction to the Internet on 275 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:00,960 Speaker 1: any given day, and then you could explore on your 276 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,440 Speaker 1: own as much as you liked. But this was sort 277 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:05,560 Speaker 1: of a starting point. Well, that's the same thing Yahoo 278 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,760 Speaker 1: was doing, and it was seeing a lot of early 279 00:17:08,840 --> 00:17:11,760 Speaker 1: success with that. Yeah, the biggest the biggest difference here 280 00:17:11,840 --> 00:17:14,760 Speaker 1: was that a O L was still proprietary in its 281 00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,600 Speaker 1: own network and not hooked up to the Internet, while 282 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:20,919 Speaker 1: Yahoo was on the Internet itself. Yeah, it was. It 283 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:24,560 Speaker 1: was browser based as opposed to computer based. Yes. And 284 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:29,159 Speaker 1: then also they started to introduce something that would become 285 00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:33,879 Speaker 1: incredibly influential on the web, one of the most uh 286 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:38,040 Speaker 1: influential acts ever, I would say, which is that they 287 00:17:38,359 --> 00:17:42,720 Speaker 1: really were pioneers with web advertising. They became a platform 288 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:47,120 Speaker 1: for web ads, and this is kind of the foundation 289 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:52,760 Speaker 1: for the way many companies make money using the web. 290 00:17:53,040 --> 00:17:55,399 Speaker 1: And there there there are several different ways to generate 291 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:57,919 Speaker 1: revenue on the Web, and some of it is involving 292 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:00,600 Speaker 1: like commerce, you know, essentially using the as sort of 293 00:18:00,640 --> 00:18:04,240 Speaker 1: a catalog, the way you could argue Amazon does. Amazon 294 00:18:04,320 --> 00:18:06,720 Speaker 1: also offers a lot of services that you can subscribe 295 00:18:06,760 --> 00:18:11,000 Speaker 1: to either as a customer or as a corporate customer. Uh, 296 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:13,680 Speaker 1: they generate revenue that way as well, so they it's 297 00:18:13,760 --> 00:18:19,480 Speaker 1: not just through being sort of a retail or catalog 298 00:18:19,600 --> 00:18:23,119 Speaker 1: kind of approach. But web advertising is is a major 299 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:26,320 Speaker 1: way that companies make money on the Internet. And Yahoo 300 00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:29,720 Speaker 1: was again the really the pioneer in those early days 301 00:18:30,520 --> 00:18:35,560 Speaker 1: of defining what web advertising is. In fact, y'all who 302 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:40,720 Speaker 1: would even eventually do studies that would help show a 303 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:45,719 Speaker 1: connection between web advertising and real world effects, so in 304 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:50,080 Speaker 1: other words, showing that web advertising can have an effect 305 00:18:50,240 --> 00:18:56,640 Speaker 1: in guiding someone's consumer choices. Well, they were very effective 306 00:18:56,640 --> 00:18:59,920 Speaker 1: at creating content that would get people to the website. 307 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:02,919 Speaker 1: And it makes sense that, you know, you would be 308 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:05,360 Speaker 1: able to go up to a company who might want 309 00:19:05,359 --> 00:19:07,399 Speaker 1: to advertise and say, look, I I know for a 310 00:19:07,440 --> 00:19:10,879 Speaker 1: fact I'm going to have people on this page because 311 00:19:10,880 --> 00:19:13,880 Speaker 1: I get fifty people to visit this page every day, 312 00:19:14,040 --> 00:19:17,040 Speaker 1: and now you can advertise if you want to pay 313 00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:23,440 Speaker 1: you one access to at max then uh yeah, and 314 00:19:23,440 --> 00:19:26,200 Speaker 1: and and that was a powerful story to say, look, 315 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:29,040 Speaker 1: we have the we can tell you how many people 316 00:19:29,320 --> 00:19:33,159 Speaker 1: looked at this, and if your ad is on this page, 317 00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:35,919 Speaker 1: people will see it, whereas if you put an ad 318 00:19:35,920 --> 00:19:38,640 Speaker 1: in a magazine or on a billboard. You don't know 319 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:42,040 Speaker 1: if people, if their eyes ever even glanced across it, 320 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:44,159 Speaker 1: but we could tell you if they saw it or not, 321 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:47,400 Speaker 1: because we know if they came to the page. It's 322 00:19:47,400 --> 00:19:50,920 Speaker 1: a pretty powerful story. Not everyone bought into it immediately, No, 323 00:19:51,440 --> 00:19:54,240 Speaker 1: it actually took some time to really get traction. But 324 00:19:54,680 --> 00:19:58,800 Speaker 1: once once, there were some early success stories. That was 325 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:01,520 Speaker 1: that the right was on the wall, that web advertising 326 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:04,080 Speaker 1: was going to be the future for generating revenue on 327 00:20:04,119 --> 00:20:09,320 Speaker 1: the web. Well, within three years, the total market value 328 00:20:09,320 --> 00:20:12,120 Speaker 1: of the company was more than a hundred billion dollars, 329 00:20:12,440 --> 00:20:16,359 Speaker 1: So it made some waves. So so one year before 330 00:20:16,400 --> 00:20:20,200 Speaker 1: that they went ahead and established Internet guides in Chinese 331 00:20:20,400 --> 00:20:23,399 Speaker 1: and in Spanish. So it becomes a global entity. And 332 00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:26,240 Speaker 1: in fact, we're going to have some interesting discussion about 333 00:20:26,320 --> 00:20:29,760 Speaker 1: China and a little bit uh. In ninety nine, like 334 00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:31,960 Speaker 1: like Chris was saying, the valuation of the company was 335 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,119 Speaker 1: over a hundred billion. That was also the year that 336 00:20:34,200 --> 00:20:38,679 Speaker 1: Yahoo made two major acquisitions. I think we both of 337 00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:42,440 Speaker 1: these were in our podcast about some of the bad 338 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:46,520 Speaker 1: deals that have happened. One of them was Geo Cities, 339 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,600 Speaker 1: which seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, because 340 00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:51,720 Speaker 1: that's where a lot of people had built home pages, 341 00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:55,400 Speaker 1: and that was kind of the early days of when 342 00:20:55,400 --> 00:20:57,879 Speaker 1: people would create a digital presence on the web. This 343 00:20:57,960 --> 00:21:01,240 Speaker 1: is before blogging, it's before and anything like tumbler or 344 00:21:01,280 --> 00:21:04,919 Speaker 1: social networks. So at the time, that was kind of 345 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:07,359 Speaker 1: how people thought, Oh, well, if I want to create 346 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:10,560 Speaker 1: something that's about me, I have to have a website. 347 00:21:11,040 --> 00:21:14,480 Speaker 1: Nowadays that's not the case. People use other platforms and 348 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:17,399 Speaker 1: then they you know, talk about themselves at length. That way, 349 00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:19,840 Speaker 1: if you want to hear about me, follow me at 350 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:23,640 Speaker 1: John Strickland Twitter. There you go, um, because I'll talk 351 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:28,720 Speaker 1: about myself all day long. They also bought another company, 352 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:31,080 Speaker 1: and this was probably I think this was this topped 353 00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:37,840 Speaker 1: our list of bad deals, which was Broadcast dot Com. Now, 354 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:43,639 Speaker 1: Yahoo has a history of looking at ways of marrying 355 00:21:43,800 --> 00:21:47,880 Speaker 1: other form of media with the web or getting into 356 00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:53,600 Speaker 1: businesses that are beyond just curating content for the web 357 00:21:53,680 --> 00:21:57,720 Speaker 1: or even generating content, and that included Broadcast dot Com. 358 00:21:58,200 --> 00:22:02,160 Speaker 1: H Now, this acquisition did do something, uh, it made 359 00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:06,199 Speaker 1: Mark Cuban a billionaire. Say it affected the sports the 360 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:09,120 Speaker 1: sports world substantially because it gave Mark Cuban enough money 361 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:12,199 Speaker 1: to buy teams and give himself fine for it. It 362 00:22:12,240 --> 00:22:15,680 Speaker 1: gave money to a real Maverick and then a lot 363 00:22:15,720 --> 00:22:21,240 Speaker 1: of other matricks to um yeah, the the but but Broadcast, 364 00:22:21,240 --> 00:22:24,600 Speaker 1: you know y'all, who ultimately was not really able to 365 00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:28,600 Speaker 1: do much with broadcast. It did absorb some of the 366 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:32,639 Speaker 1: technology that broadcasts had developed into other parts of Yahoo, 367 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:37,320 Speaker 1: but broadcast dot Com itself and the identity it had 368 00:22:37,400 --> 00:22:41,840 Speaker 1: created ceased to be before much longer and it A 369 00:22:41,840 --> 00:22:45,560 Speaker 1: lot of people cite the Yahoo Broadcast deal as one 370 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:50,639 Speaker 1: of the most short sighted, unwise deals, especially when you 371 00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:55,879 Speaker 1: look at how many users were uh subscribed essentially to 372 00:22:55,920 --> 00:22:59,159 Speaker 1: broadcast dot Com, because it was one of those deals 373 00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:02,760 Speaker 1: where the amount of money paid per user was astronomical, 374 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:05,320 Speaker 1: like it would have been cheaper to just go to 375 00:23:05,440 --> 00:23:08,240 Speaker 1: every single person who had ever visited broadcast dot com 376 00:23:08,240 --> 00:23:10,720 Speaker 1: and give him a check for a thousand dollars. That 377 00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:13,720 Speaker 1: would have been less expensive than buying broadcast for what 378 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:17,200 Speaker 1: they did U. So yeah, that ninety nine definitely had 379 00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:21,160 Speaker 1: a couple of questionable acquisitions in it, although again, really 380 00:23:21,240 --> 00:23:23,720 Speaker 1: we have the benefit of hindsight at the time there 381 00:23:23,800 --> 00:23:28,040 Speaker 1: was it don't seem quite so silly. Yeah. Again, this 382 00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:30,720 Speaker 1: is when the bubble still inflating, right, The bubble was 383 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:33,280 Speaker 1: not burst yet. People just thought that the web was 384 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:36,840 Speaker 1: limitless as far as not just not just for content, 385 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:41,199 Speaker 1: but for the possibility of making money, and that you know, 386 00:23:41,320 --> 00:23:43,600 Speaker 1: no one really knew where the web was going, but 387 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:47,880 Speaker 1: everyone was really excited. So in hindsight we could say like, whoops, 388 00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:51,600 Speaker 1: bad idea, but at the time no way of knowing. Well, yeah, 389 00:23:51,600 --> 00:23:56,639 Speaker 1: who actually sort of gave rise to another similar but 390 00:23:56,760 --> 00:23:59,879 Speaker 1: not exactly the same type of website. Wow. Yeah, so 391 00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:02,399 Speaker 1: you're talking about something a meeting that happened in two thousand, 392 00:24:02,400 --> 00:24:04,480 Speaker 1: aren't you. Well, yes, but I was kind of going 393 00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:10,160 Speaker 1: to preface that meeting by saying, um, people would visit 394 00:24:10,240 --> 00:24:13,760 Speaker 1: Yahoo to find other websites. As a matter of fact, 395 00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:17,480 Speaker 1: for a while, they had a print magazine Yahoo Internet Life. 396 00:24:17,520 --> 00:24:19,560 Speaker 1: I remember it. You used to be able to see 397 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:23,000 Speaker 1: it on the news stand. Um. You know, my as 398 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:27,400 Speaker 1: my father got into, uh getting online. He was a subscriber, 399 00:24:27,440 --> 00:24:31,320 Speaker 1: so he could find websites, um and uh, and that 400 00:24:31,400 --> 00:24:33,520 Speaker 1: was that was kind of interesting. One of the nice 401 00:24:33,560 --> 00:24:36,359 Speaker 1: things about doing things the way Yahoo did was it 402 00:24:36,440 --> 00:24:39,280 Speaker 1: was done primarily by hand. I mean, people would actually 403 00:24:39,359 --> 00:24:41,800 Speaker 1: go online see what something was about, maybe give it 404 00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:44,440 Speaker 1: a little right up, Hey, visited this website. It's kind 405 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:45,919 Speaker 1: of neat. You can do this and that and the 406 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:48,720 Speaker 1: other thing on it. Uh, but you know that doing 407 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:51,440 Speaker 1: that my hand is time consuming. And this is when 408 00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:54,760 Speaker 1: we started talking about the search engine UM, which would 409 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:59,440 Speaker 1: use primarily software. There were lots of them around that time, 410 00:24:59,520 --> 00:25:04,720 Speaker 1: like Alta, Vista and hot Bot and UM. Another site 411 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:09,320 Speaker 1: started by two guys who met at Stanford University. Side 412 00:25:09,359 --> 00:25:13,800 Speaker 1: that rhymes was Schmoogle, yes or or Google or Google. Yeah, 413 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:18,960 Speaker 1: that wasn't lost on me either. So yeah, Page and 414 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:23,719 Speaker 1: Brenn Larry Page and Sir Gay brend Um. So they 415 00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:27,000 Speaker 1: started after y'all who did. They started after y'all who did, 416 00:25:27,080 --> 00:25:28,919 Speaker 1: And they took a different approach y'all who was all 417 00:25:28,960 --> 00:25:33,480 Speaker 1: about curating data, yes, curating websites and kind of categorizing stuff. 418 00:25:33,800 --> 00:25:37,480 Speaker 1: Google was a different sort of search engine where it was, 419 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:40,080 Speaker 1: you know, you told Google what it was you were 420 00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:42,399 Speaker 1: looking for, It crawled the web and gave you the 421 00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:46,720 Speaker 1: results that um that, according to its algorithm, were the 422 00:25:46,760 --> 00:25:51,080 Speaker 1: most relevant to your search. And there wasn't really human 423 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:53,720 Speaker 1: curation going on. It would just tell you whether or 424 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:55,840 Speaker 1: not what you were you found was relevant to what 425 00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:58,520 Speaker 1: you looked for, right, and Paige and brend had approached 426 00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:03,919 Speaker 1: Yahoo for with a request for some cash infusions early 427 00:26:03,960 --> 00:26:05,879 Speaker 1: on in the days of Google. That was one of 428 00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:09,840 Speaker 1: the different companies that they approached to try and get 429 00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:11,960 Speaker 1: a little bit of support when they were doing their 430 00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:17,400 Speaker 1: earlier work. And in two thousand, Yahoo made an interesting decision. 431 00:26:17,760 --> 00:26:21,199 Speaker 1: They decided to they they they saw the power of 432 00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:25,560 Speaker 1: Google's search algorithm, you know, and and they admired it. 433 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:29,520 Speaker 1: And so Yahoo paid a licensing fee to Google for 434 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: an agreement, a deal that would last four years that 435 00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:38,040 Speaker 1: would allow Yahoo to use Google's search algorithm on Yahoo's site. 436 00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:43,960 Speaker 1: So beyond just curating content for people by people, they 437 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:47,120 Speaker 1: would also use Google search algorithm to search the web 438 00:26:47,200 --> 00:26:50,639 Speaker 1: for other content that wasn't necessarily something that a human 439 00:26:50,680 --> 00:26:55,080 Speaker 1: being had curated for you. And it was a in 440 00:26:55,160 --> 00:26:59,040 Speaker 1: hindsight kind of a brilliant decision in a way, because 441 00:26:59,119 --> 00:27:01,639 Speaker 1: it gave them the hour of Google's search and that 442 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:06,760 Speaker 1: augmented their human curate curated content and theoretically would bring 443 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:09,200 Speaker 1: more people to Yahoo. The only problem was that people 444 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:13,399 Speaker 1: started to realize that this Google powered search engine was 445 00:27:13,480 --> 00:27:16,239 Speaker 1: exactly what they wanted, and some people began to just 446 00:27:16,359 --> 00:27:20,600 Speaker 1: bypass Yahoo entirely go straight to Google. Google was such 447 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:24,240 Speaker 1: a different experience because y'ah, who again is a portal? Right, 448 00:27:24,400 --> 00:27:27,760 Speaker 1: you know you've got this this Uh, busy is the 449 00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:31,800 Speaker 1: wrong word, but elaborate web presentation has lots of different 450 00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:36,240 Speaker 1: elements to it. Google. We're all familiar with Google's homepage. 451 00:27:36,400 --> 00:27:40,560 Speaker 1: It is stripped down. It is just the bare necessities, 452 00:27:41,040 --> 00:27:45,720 Speaker 1: not unattractive, but not cluttered in any anyway or or 453 00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:49,320 Speaker 1: there's no extraneous information. There's a search bar, there's a logo, 454 00:27:49,480 --> 00:27:51,440 Speaker 1: and there's just a little bit of text and that's it. Yeah, 455 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:56,520 Speaker 1: it's functional. So people would start to bypass Yahoo goes 456 00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:58,280 Speaker 1: straight to Google and say, well, you know, I could 457 00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,240 Speaker 1: just go here and find what I need. I remember 458 00:28:01,280 --> 00:28:04,639 Speaker 1: these days, all right, I remember. I remember the days 459 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:08,600 Speaker 1: when I distinctly remember when I was part of a 460 00:28:08,640 --> 00:28:11,320 Speaker 1: message board. Actually was the Snopes message board. I've been 461 00:28:11,520 --> 00:28:16,080 Speaker 1: on Snopes forever. Uh, but I remember people on Snopes saying, 462 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:20,359 Speaker 1: you know what, this Google surge engine is so much 463 00:28:20,440 --> 00:28:23,200 Speaker 1: faster and so much more comprehensive than anything else out there. 464 00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:26,600 Speaker 1: That's what I use and that's what got me interested 465 00:28:26,640 --> 00:28:30,080 Speaker 1: in using Google. And that's um, I mean, I very 466 00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:36,240 Speaker 1: much agreed. And so, Yeah, whose decision to license this 467 00:28:36,359 --> 00:28:39,720 Speaker 1: technology may also have hurt Yahoo in the long run 468 00:28:39,800 --> 00:28:43,600 Speaker 1: because people began to discover Google when otherwise they may 469 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:47,720 Speaker 1: never have heard of it. And also it you know, 470 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,160 Speaker 1: who had sort of created a monster. Yeah, who had 471 00:28:50,240 --> 00:28:52,080 Speaker 1: sort of you know, they've been a pioneer in the 472 00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:57,440 Speaker 1: web advertising space. Google showed a fair amount of innovation 473 00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:02,760 Speaker 1: in that space, uh, and would dominate it in such 474 00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:05,680 Speaker 1: a way as to frighten everybody else for the rest 475 00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,440 Speaker 1: of time. Yeah, I mean, it's phenomenal what Google did. 476 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:10,960 Speaker 1: Google looked at what Yah who was doing and said, 477 00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:13,680 Speaker 1: let's apply the same logic we did with our algorithm 478 00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:17,600 Speaker 1: for search and create a tool that's going to give 479 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,200 Speaker 1: people who want to advertise on the web way more 480 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:25,959 Speaker 1: information and control and and analytics and they've ever had before, 481 00:29:26,800 --> 00:29:28,440 Speaker 1: and we're going to do it better than anyone else. 482 00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:31,760 Speaker 1: And that's you know, they you can argue how successful 483 00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:34,560 Speaker 1: they weren't accomplishing that goal, but they definitely saw results 484 00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,719 Speaker 1: for one thing, just Google AdWords. They could tell you, hey, 485 00:29:38,800 --> 00:29:41,640 Speaker 1: you know, we ran this ad, And we found out 486 00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:44,160 Speaker 1: that if we ran the ad using this word as 487 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,200 Speaker 1: the trigger as opposed to this word as the trigger, 488 00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:51,040 Speaker 1: we had a sevent increase in success. Like the like, 489 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:54,880 Speaker 1: how did you That's that's insane amount of control for 490 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:58,000 Speaker 1: an ad. You know, you've gotten down to the granular, 491 00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:02,440 Speaker 1: granular level of control where you can scientifically engineer the 492 00:30:02,480 --> 00:30:06,600 Speaker 1: most powerful AD possible using the material you have. That's 493 00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:10,760 Speaker 1: that's a story. That's incredibly powerful. Anyway, So, yeah, who 494 00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:13,880 Speaker 1: ends up giving this boost to Google because they licensed 495 00:30:13,920 --> 00:30:16,320 Speaker 1: the technology that will end up hurting them in the 496 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:19,240 Speaker 1: long run. A smart move that turns out to be 497 00:30:19,280 --> 00:30:21,520 Speaker 1: a dumb one as well. In two thousand one, that's 498 00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:25,080 Speaker 1: when the that's when the bottom fell out. That's the 499 00:30:25,120 --> 00:30:28,840 Speaker 1: bubble burst. That's when that stock price plummeted from its 500 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:32,520 Speaker 1: all time high to its all time below. I had 501 00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:37,120 Speaker 1: forgotten too that before the bubble really had burst terribly 502 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:41,880 Speaker 1: that Yahoo really kind of had a chance to get eBay, yes, 503 00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:44,600 Speaker 1: but didn't. Yes. Actually there's a lot of stories about yeah, 504 00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:46,960 Speaker 1: who having a chance to do something but not doing it. 505 00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 1: They well that was when they didn't purchase eBay. Yeah, Yeah, 506 00:30:50,640 --> 00:30:53,160 Speaker 1: there's gonna be some more didn't down the line. But 507 00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:56,120 Speaker 1: there's also at that point, so the the valuation of 508 00:30:56,160 --> 00:31:01,120 Speaker 1: the company went from over one billion to around ten billion. 509 00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:05,400 Speaker 1: That's enough. Okay, that's still quite a bit of money. Yeah, 510 00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:10,280 Speaker 1: but still is a huge drop. Shareholders not happy. Well, 511 00:31:10,320 --> 00:31:14,120 Speaker 1: the companies that didn't survive the dot com crash, by 512 00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:18,280 Speaker 1: and large had poor business models. They weren't They weren't 513 00:31:18,320 --> 00:31:23,440 Speaker 1: really based in reality and Yahoo, I mean advertising is 514 00:31:23,480 --> 00:31:26,760 Speaker 1: pretty well based in reality. You know, they weren't really suffering. 515 00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:30,240 Speaker 1: They Yeah, that hurts losing it, you know, nine tenths 516 00:31:30,240 --> 00:31:36,000 Speaker 1: of your value, But definitely it shook shareholder confidence severely, 517 00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:40,480 Speaker 1: to the point where Cool ends up resigning. Yeah, and 518 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:43,600 Speaker 1: I mean that's not a big surprise. You're talking about 519 00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:49,000 Speaker 1: such an incredible drop that it would have been amazing 520 00:31:49,200 --> 00:31:54,600 Speaker 1: had the CEO not resigned and a new CEO steps in. 521 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:59,000 Speaker 1: Terry Simmel, who was came from a totally different world. 522 00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,200 Speaker 1: He did not come from the world of the web 523 00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:11,200 Speaker 1: or technology. He came from the world of Hollywood. Um. 524 00:32:11,320 --> 00:32:14,960 Speaker 1: He was a co CEO, which you know, you don't 525 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,719 Speaker 1: hear that too frequently. There was a co CEO and 526 00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:22,880 Speaker 1: chairman of a little little media company called Warner Brothers, 527 00:32:24,560 --> 00:32:29,040 Speaker 1: but not the Warners sister not. Yeah, so he was 528 00:32:29,080 --> 00:32:32,120 Speaker 1: a co CEO of Warner Brothers. He comes on as 529 00:32:32,160 --> 00:32:35,600 Speaker 1: the new CEO for Yahoo. Uh you know who also 530 00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:39,320 Speaker 1: acquires a company called hot Jobs. I remember that. Yeah, 531 00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:43,720 Speaker 1: sort of a monster. Um yeah, as an online job 532 00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:49,040 Speaker 1: posting service where you could search for jobs, uh and 533 00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:53,400 Speaker 1: and post jobs online. Um so yeah, this was simil 534 00:32:54,560 --> 00:32:56,080 Speaker 1: There were a lot there was a lot of speculation 535 00:32:56,120 --> 00:32:58,360 Speaker 1: and a lot of skepticism that he would be able 536 00:32:58,520 --> 00:33:04,680 Speaker 1: to affectly lead a company when he himself was admittedly 537 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:09,720 Speaker 1: not from the technological world. In fact, there were stories 538 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,960 Speaker 1: about how he didn't use email. I mean, he was 539 00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:17,360 Speaker 1: just not a technology guy. But he did have an 540 00:33:17,440 --> 00:33:20,640 Speaker 1: understanding of how businesses work. Now that was not always, 541 00:33:20,920 --> 00:33:23,280 Speaker 1: it was not always in a successful endeavor with Yahoo, 542 00:33:23,320 --> 00:33:26,360 Speaker 1: but he did manage to turn Yahoo around from this 543 00:33:26,360 --> 00:33:30,240 Speaker 1: this this rock bottom level that they had hit after 544 00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:33,360 Speaker 1: the bubble burst, and he may manage to keep it afloat. 545 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,040 Speaker 1: And so in two thousand two he had a meeting 546 00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:41,520 Speaker 1: with these those those two upstarts who were running Google, 547 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:46,600 Speaker 1: the company that was furnishing the search algorithm that Yahoo 548 00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:50,640 Speaker 1: was using. And in two thousand. Yeah, they were talking 549 00:33:50,640 --> 00:33:54,640 Speaker 1: at that time about the possibility of an acquisition and 550 00:33:55,000 --> 00:33:59,960 Speaker 1: how different would the world be if Yahoo had a 551 00:34:00,000 --> 00:34:03,960 Speaker 1: acquired Google at that time. I mean, it's it's hard 552 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:06,440 Speaker 1: to think about because think about all the stuff Google 553 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:10,040 Speaker 1: does that's well beyond just search engines. And if y'all 554 00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:14,080 Speaker 1: who had acquired Google, would that corporate culture have existed? 555 00:34:14,719 --> 00:34:18,359 Speaker 1: Would we have would we have a driverless car made 556 00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:22,760 Speaker 1: by Google? Would we have you know, Google Project Glass? Yeah, 557 00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:25,520 Speaker 1: I mean, not to mention just all the other stuff 558 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:27,719 Speaker 1: that Google does, Google Docs, and Gmail. I mean, a 559 00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:31,399 Speaker 1: lot of this stuff would probably have been created at 560 00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:33,879 Speaker 1: Yahoo in some form or another, but it definitely would 561 00:34:33,880 --> 00:34:38,680 Speaker 1: have taken a different path. Well, Brin and Page could 562 00:34:38,680 --> 00:34:42,680 Speaker 1: not come to any agreement with Simul, and that was 563 00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:46,840 Speaker 1: partially because it was really hard to value Google. And 564 00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:49,520 Speaker 1: it all depends on who you ask. How much money 565 00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:52,520 Speaker 1: was offered. I heard one billion, but then Page and 566 00:34:52,520 --> 00:34:55,399 Speaker 1: Brand asked for three billion. I also heard that there 567 00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:57,799 Speaker 1: was a three billion offer, but Page and Brend then 568 00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:00,600 Speaker 1: said five billion. So it almost sounds Page and Brand 569 00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:03,600 Speaker 1: kind of just didn't want to sell, like they felt 570 00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:06,480 Speaker 1: that that was that might be the wrong choice. And 571 00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:08,200 Speaker 1: then there's also the argument of maybe they were just 572 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:10,480 Speaker 1: trying to feel out how much their company was worth. 573 00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:13,520 Speaker 1: I don't know that all the details, and in fact, 574 00:35:13,600 --> 00:35:16,360 Speaker 1: a lot of the information I found what conflicted with 575 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,600 Speaker 1: other information I found, So it's just speculation on my 576 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:24,560 Speaker 1: part at this point. But ultimately Yahoo did not purchase Google, 577 00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:27,240 Speaker 1: and I know there was an entire article and Wired 578 00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,640 Speaker 1: that said that that was the biggest mistake that Semil 579 00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:34,040 Speaker 1: made throughout his tenure at Yeah. It was that he 580 00:35:34,080 --> 00:35:38,280 Speaker 1: did not jump on the chance of acquiring Google. Because 581 00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:42,960 Speaker 1: Google continued to grow in popularity and in fact would 582 00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:48,399 Speaker 1: ultimately dominate web search, and Yahoo's share of the web 583 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:53,319 Speaker 1: search market would start to shrink as Google's began to 584 00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:57,200 Speaker 1: be the entire, the vast majority of web search. All 585 00:35:57,200 --> 00:36:02,960 Speaker 1: the other little web search engines out there, we're reduced 586 00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:07,719 Speaker 1: to just the tiniest user bases in comparison, at least 587 00:36:07,719 --> 00:36:10,319 Speaker 1: in the United States. Yeah, yeah, in the units, that's 588 00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:15,040 Speaker 1: a good qualifier in the United States. You know, occasionally 589 00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:17,200 Speaker 1: we believe it or not, we we go on a 590 00:36:17,239 --> 00:36:21,600 Speaker 1: little long about subjects, and I think that's so, and 591 00:36:21,680 --> 00:36:25,160 Speaker 1: that actually was the case with this episode on Yahoo. 592 00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:28,359 Speaker 1: We ended up with so much material that we ended 593 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:31,600 Speaker 1: up splitting it into two episodes, um, which we didn't 594 00:36:31,600 --> 00:36:34,759 Speaker 1: know at the time, so surprised, but UM yeah, so 595 00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:37,600 Speaker 1: we're gonna wrap it up here and uh and you 596 00:36:37,640 --> 00:36:40,680 Speaker 1: can tune in for our second episode on on Yahoo 597 00:36:40,719 --> 00:36:44,319 Speaker 1: in the two thousand's um, so, so make sure to 598 00:36:44,440 --> 00:36:46,399 Speaker 1: tune in for that. Yeah, and if you have any 599 00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:49,080 Speaker 1: suggestions for future topics that Chris and I should tackle 600 00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:53,640 Speaker 1: and other episodes of tech Stuff, perhaps other topics so large. 601 00:36:53,840 --> 00:36:56,920 Speaker 1: After we record it, we realized that's too long for 602 00:36:56,960 --> 00:37:00,400 Speaker 1: any human being to endure. Let's split that up again. Us. Know, 603 00:37:00,960 --> 00:37:03,760 Speaker 1: you can send us a message on Facebook for Twitter, 604 00:37:03,800 --> 00:37:06,400 Speaker 1: are handled? There is tech Stuff hsw or shoot us 605 00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:10,040 Speaker 1: an email or address is tech Stuff at Discovery dot 606 00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:11,560 Speaker 1: com and Chris and I will talk to you again 607 00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:16,000 Speaker 1: about Yeah. Who is it turns out really soon for 608 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:18,440 Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it 609 00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:24,680 Speaker 1: how Stuff works dot Com Brought to you by the 610 00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:28,040 Speaker 1: reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are you