Early Yahoo employees recall building the directory

[bill]

As Yahoo puts itself up for sale, early employees known as "surfers" recall building the company's directory

When Yahoo Ruled the Valley: Stories of the Original ‘Surfers’ [nytimes.com]

Back in the mid-1990s, before Google even existed, the world’s best guides to the internet sat in Silicon Valley cubicles, visiting websites and carefully categorizing them by hand.

They were called surfers, and they were a collection of mostly 20-somethings — including a yoga lover, an ex-banker, a divinity student, a recent college grad from Ohio hungry for adventure — all hired by a start-up called Yahoo to build a directory of the world’s most interesting websites.

[keyplyr]

Well nostalgia is classically selective. What I remember is paying a pretty sum to get listed in that directory. Then later they changed the rules to recurring payments. But I do recognise the leading role Yahoo once played. I liked their home page.

[bill]

I got in early, and for free, for most of my listings, so I must have been lucky. I did have to pay for a few later listings, but my early activity paid off back when the Directory meant something.

[engine]

I got in early, too, and the directory had some clout. Over time it then became a sanitised directory as it slowly lost its way, and was overtaken by search, and eventually it had less and less profile.

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be!