Famous Logos “Yahoo”

During their time at Stanford University, David Filo and Jerry Yang, the founders of Yahoo Inc. started a guide about their personal interests on the internet. They listed their favorite and relevant website links collected from different sources, to assist in their dissertations. Soon, that list became too long and awkward so, they categorized it. When the categories became full, they sub-categorized them… and thus the core concept behind Yahoo! was born.

From the beginning, the company’s mission is ‘to connect people to their passions, their communities, and the world’s knowledge’, but the real success of Yahoo! was largely based on the marketing strategy of the company and the branding of its identity (logo). In the overall success of a business, logos play an important role in the corporate world. They become the identity of a company when the business expands and thus generates the general perception about the company. When Yahoo became a corporation in 1995, they kept the similar idea in their mind before finalizing their logo. For them, the Yahoo logo was a mean to express the company’s mission and idea to the general public. That’s why the chosen word ‘Yahoo’ in the Yahoo logo is an acronym for ‘Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle’. But according to Filo and Yang, they selected the name because they liked the general definition of ‘yahoo’: rude, unsophisticated, and uncouth. For the color scheme of the Yahoo logo, they went for a safer approach with a red colored theme which complimented the yahoo’s definition.

Although still used today to some of its features, theYahoo logo has now been revamped into a purple colored icon with variations that include white logo and Y! Bang logo.

- LogoBlog.org “Famous Logo Design” (2007)