[sthlm]

The Yahoo Directory was Yahoo's first product.

This is a stark reminder that very few things last and maybe a point to reflect how Yahoo succeeded and failed to pivot into other directions.

Can you imagine Google terminating Search? Facebook terminating their home page? What else would they do and would they be successful?

In a historical context, back in the day directories were a big deal, it took a long time for search engines to become powerful enough to rival the usability. A piece of the old web is gone now.

[notahacker]

The original "school networks" of Facebook are long gone; their vestigial remains insufficient too track down fellow alumni. The newsfeed, like the Yahoo portal content, was a later addition.

[graycat]

> rival the usability

Not really their utility! Search by keywords/phrases sorted by popularity and date do not fully replace a good directory which, in contrast, can be a list curated by human experts in ways that keywords/phrases cannot more then just begin to characterize.

Rough, old proof of this point: Why the Yellow Pages, with their categories and ads, were so much more useful than just the white pages. E.g., the ads gave a lot of details beyond just the keywords used in the alphabetical lookup. So, do the alphabetical lookup and then look at the ads for more details. The larger ads in effect were a curation.

And there are other examples of directories.

Am I the only one who thinks this way?