History and growth

Main article: History of Yahoo!

See also: Timeline of Yahoo!

In January 1994, Jerry Yang and David Filo were electrical engineering graduate students at Stanford University when they created a website named "David and Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web".^[9] David and Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web was a directory of other websites, organized in a hierarchy, as opposed to a searchable index of pages. In April 1994, "David and Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" was renamed "Yahoo!".^[10][11] The yahoo.com domain was created on January 18, 1995.^[12] The word is an acronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle."^[13] The term "hierarchical" described how the Yahoo! database was arranged in directory layers. The term "oracle" was intended to mean "source of truth and wisdom," and "officious", rather than being related in any way to the meaning of the word, described the many office workers who would use the Yahoo! database while surfing from work.^[14] However, Filo and Yang insist they mainly selected the name because they liked the slang definition of a "yahoo" (used by college students in David Filo's native Louisiana in the late 1980s and early 1990s to refer to an unsophisticated, rural Southerner): "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth." Filo's college girlfriend often referred to Filo as a "yahoo." This meaning derives from the name of a race of fictional beings from Gulliver's Travels.
Yahoo! grew rapidly throughout the 1990s. Like many search engines and web directories, Yahoo! diversified into a web portal. It also made many high-profile acquisitions. Its stock price skyrocketed during the dot-com bubble, Yahoo! stocks closing at an all-time high of $118.75 a share on 3 January 2000. However, after the dot-com bubble burst, it settled at a post-bubble low of $4.05 on 26 September 2001.
In 2000, Yahoo! began using Google for search results. Over the next four years, it developed its own search technologies, which it began using in 2004. Yahoo! also revamped its mail service to compete with Google's Gmail in 2007. The company struggled through 2008, with several large layoffs.
In February 2008, Microsoft Corporation made an unsolicited bid to acquire Yahoo! for USD $44.6 billion. Yahoo! subsequently formally rejected the bid, claiming that it "substantially undervalues" Yahoo! and was not in the interest of its shareholders. Three years later, Yahoo! had a stock market capitalization of USD $22.24 billion.^[15] Carol Bartz replaced cofounder Jerry Yang in January 2009.^[16] In September 2011 she was removed from her position at Yahoo! by the company's chairman Roy Bostock (via phone call), and CFO Tim Morse was named as Interim CEO of the company.   www.bgpocled.com

Letter of the day: Why should government tell us what to buy?

To The Editor:
Thomas Edison must be turning in his grave right about now. The Canadian government is poised to ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs. As of Jan.1, 2012, the familiar incandescent bulb will be phased out, and by next spring the only bulbs available will be compact fluorescents (those little curly ones), and LED bulbs.
The ban has already taken effect in British Columbia much to the dislike of both consumers and retailers. While not everyone might lament the death of the incandescent bulb, losing the freedom to buy them is something that should concern us very much indeed.
Think about it. If incandescent bulbs can be banned in the supposed interest of saving the environment, then what’s next? Can you imagine a day when the government controls not only what kind of light bulbs you use, but what kind of car you can drive, how much water and electricity you can use, and perhaps even what kind of foods you can eat?
It may sound like fantasy, but such ideas do exist and there are people in the world who would like to make them a reality. Now don’t get me wrong, I care about the earth too, but I also value my personal freedom. Making eco-friendly choices of our own free will is fine, but it’s a different matter altogether when the government starts making those choices for us.
Our soldiers fought and gave their lives so we could have freedom in every sense of the word, and that includes the freedom to choose which products we want to buy.
It’s interesting to note that these CFL bulbs aren’t as eco-friendly as we’ve been lead to believe.
While they do use much less energy, they also contain mercury which, if released, can be very harmful to people and the environment. CFL bulbs also have numerous other safety and performance issues, which is largely what has hindered their popularity. When you consider all the drawbacks of CFL bulbs you have to wonder just why this change is being made, and who really stands to benefit the most from it.
If you agree that we should remain free to choose which light bulbs to buy, it’s not too late to take action. One of the easiest things you can do is write your MP, or local newspaper, or simply talk about it with your family and friends; you’d be amazed how many people are unaware and disapprove of this impending change.
Oh, and if you plan on using incandescent bulbs for a few more years, I suggest you start stocking up now, just in case.   www.bgocled.com

LEDs Are Getting Ready for the Spotlight

In October, the Chili's restaurant chainannounced plans to outfit 827 restaurants with 125,000 LED lamps—an installation that the company claims will save up to $3.7 million per year and mark the largest LED rollout in the United States to date. Best Buy, meanwhile, has pledged to install 35,000 LED lamps in place of halogen bulbs for digital-camera displays and high-end audio and video showrooms.   www.bgocled.com

SolidApollo.com Launches to the LED Lighting Market

North Seattle LED lighting manufacturer and distributor Solid Apollo launches new superior LED Light Strips, LED Strip Controls systems, Solderless LED Strip Accessories and LED Dimmers which will enable users to create faster and long lasting installations.
North Seattle LED lighting manufacturer and distributor SolidApollo.com just introduced to the market superior LED Lighting Strips, LED Strip Controls, Solderless LED Strip Accessories and LED Dimmers, which will enable users to create faster installations and enjoy better lighting performance.
There are several factors that distinguish SolidApollo’s LED Strips from other retailers. Their Led Lighting Strips offer high quality controls and the best value in the market thanks to several technological factors.
First of all, Solid Apollo’s LED Light Strips run at 24V DC instead of the typical 12V DC. This makes their product more stable and efficient in comparison to conventional 12V led strips. Lower current is needed to operate them, which increases life span as well as lowering the heat emission, a key factor when it comes to eroding and degrading the phosphor in the LEDs. It is demonstrated that a lower current decreases substantially light degradation and LED strips suffer when exposed to constant heat and high currents to operate them.   www.bgocled.com