Yahoo

Yahoo is an American web services provider founded in January 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and has been a subsidiary of Verizon Media since 2017. Initially a web directory, Yahoo evolved into a major internet portal offering a wide array of services including news, email, search engines, finance, sports, and video content. At its peak in the early 2000s, Yahoo was one of the most visited websites in the world and was valued at over $125 billion. The company's search technology was powered by its own algorithms before transitioning to partnerships, first with Google and later with Microsoft's Bing. Yahoo Mail, launched in 1997, became one of the world's largest free email services with over 225 million active users as of 2020. The platform generates revenue primarily through digital advertising, including display ads and search-based advertising solutions. In 2017, Yahoo's core internet assets were acquired by Verizon Communications and merged with AOL to form Verizon Media. Yahoo Finance remains one of the most popular financial news and data platforms, providing real-time stock quotes, market analysis, and portfolio tracking tools. The company also operates Yahoo Sports, a leading sports news and fantasy sports platform, and Yahoo News, which aggregates content from various news sources. Technically, Yahoo's infrastructure is built on a combination of open-source technologies and proprietary systems, utilizing data centers managed by Yahoo itself and cloud services from third-party providers.