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Yahoo’s Canadian Roots
By Mark Evans | February 5, 2008
As an increasing number of people start to write epitaphs for Yahoo as a standalone company, you’re starting to see a lot of nostalgic stories on how David Filo and Jerry Yang started the company in 1994 from the bowels of Stanford University.
So what’s the Canadian connection?
Although few people remember it, Waterloo, Ont.-based Open Text was Yahoo’s early search engine partner. Yup, Open Text was originally a search player. Here’s what Open Text CEO Tom Jenkins had to say about the deal when it was announced in 1995:
“As the premiere guide to the online world, Yahoo! is doing exactly what our Web Search Server technology was designed to accomplish - satisfy the needs of consumers and working professionals by enabling them to more easily navigate through the Internet and gather meaningful information. We’ve established a close working relationship to drive the tight integration of Yahoo! with our Web Search Server OEM took kit. Together, we’re giving Internet users an unbeatable combination of directory-based and intelligent full-text searching unavailable anywhere else on the Net.”
As well, Open Text bought a stake in Yahoo in 1995.
So, what happened? Well, Open Text decided enterprise software had more potential than the search engine market (ha!) so it bailed out of the search business, and Yahoo jumped into bed with Altavista. By 1997, Open Text was completely out of the search game.
More: The Wall St. Journal isn’t being nostalgic at all about Yahoo, advising investors to sell their shares now (”take the money and run”).
Technorati Tags: Open Text, Yahoo
Topics: Search Engines |