Yahoo Turns 10; Free Ice Cream for America

indiejade writes "It was 10 years ago today that Yahoo was born in a trailer outside Stanford University. Joining the celebration is Baskin Robbins, which is serving up a free scoop of ice cream in honor of the day Yahoo began climbing the ranks from its humble beginning. Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo joined CEO Terry Semel to kick off the stock market opening bell this morning. The Birthday Boys claim that they are happy with the steady growth of their company, and expressed no regrets for their "once upon a time" decision to fund Google. "Competition is good," they said prior to the opening bell this morning."

Yahoo for Yahoo!

[carninja]

Let's see if we can slashdot baskin-robins!

Re:Yahoo for Yahoo!

[altek]

Done and done.

warning: karma whore

[Mattcelt]

Here's the link so you don't have to put your name into the Yahoo/Baskin Robbins mailing list...

Get your anonymous coupon here. [yahoo.com]

Should print a coupon with the words "Yahoo Fan".

New phrase for handouts!

[qwertphobia]

free as in ice cream!

you heard it here first

Re:New phrase for handouts!

[jim_redwagon]

iDownload CEO: "I'd tell you who, but that'd be like eating ice cream before it was free"

Re:New phrase for handouts!

[The-Perl-CD-Bookshel]

that was free as in laughter

good one!

Re:New phrase for handouts!

[stefanlasiewski]

Awww....

That's cute, as in beer.

ice cream

[suougibma]

Ice cream?!?! It's like 4 degrees outside!! How about some hot chocolate Baskin Robbins?!

in Norway...

[tuxette]

...it could be -10 C or colder outside, and you'll still see people outside, eating ice cream. It's just soooo good!

Re:ice cream

[Ride-My-Rocket]

It's like 4 degrees outside!! How about some hot chocolate Baskin Robbins?!

Fortunately, Baskin Robbins also give you the option to consume ice cream INSIDE their stores.

Re:In Alaska...

[__aajfby9338]

Yeah, but they call it "milk" there.

Re:ice cream

[xsupergr0verx]

Me too, and me too. Maybe I'll just keep going to the same one, but wearing different fake mustaches and hats.

Yahoo & Google...

[Sloppyjoes7]

Does anyone else remember when you went to Yahoo, and it said "Powered by Google?"

Boy, I loved Yahoo back then. I suppose I stopped using Yahoo as my search engine when that message went away. If Yahoo had used its internet portal identity with Google's search capabilities, they would've been an unstoppable Juggernaut.

But I suppose Google will do that by itself now.

Yahoo == Altavista + AllTheWeb + Inktomi + ...

[mosel-saar-ruwer]

Boy, I loved Yahoo back then. I suppose I stopped using Yahoo as my search engine when that message went away. If Yahoo had used its internet portal identity with Google's search capabilities, they would've been an unstoppable Juggernaut.

While almost all the other .com's were .bombing, Yahoo very quietly amassed an enormous portfolio of once high-flying search engines [on pennies to the dollar, compared to their pre-crash values]:

Altavista [altavista.com]
AllTheWeb [alltheweb.com]
Inktomi [inktomi.com]
Overture [overture.com]
etc...

So I wouldn't count them out just yet.

Yahoo does own part of Google

[Ars-Fartsica]

Their ownership started out as 2%, went down slightly due to some stock sales, but still over 1% I believe. This is stated in documents of both companies.

Nooooo

[SlayerofGods]

You people have killed the web page!
Now I'll never find out how to get free ice cream. :(

Re:Nooooo

[BlueThunderArmy]

Now I'll never find out how to get free ice cream. :(

I hear Bittorrent is all the rage for free stuff online... oh wait.

Re:Nooooo

[nizo]

Don't worry, the free scoops are from the "Bubblegum/Lemon Custard/Mint Orea swirl" bucket anyway. Yeeeeech.

Re:Nooooo

[calibanDNS]

Blasphemer! I can't speak for the bubble gum or mint Oreo, but lemon custard is their best flavor.

News Site Slowing Down...

[canfirman]

so, here's the text:

Yahoo!'s 10th birthday is today. To celebrate, they're giving away... a scoop of ice cream, courtesy of Baskin Robbins.

Link: Baskin Robbins Yahoo! page (link will only work today) [yahoo.com]

I don't know about the rest of the country, but right now in Dallas it's 45 degrees.

Was this a promotion cooked up by Baskin Robbins to boost sales during a slow month? Does anyone else think this is weird?

Added by WebProNews Editor ...

Here's what the splash page (linked above) says:

Yahoo! Turns 10 Today!

"You may find our celebratory tune hard to resist since it's our birthday, but you get the present. Today only, March 2, 2005, as a registered Yahpp! user, you can get one scoop (2.5 oz..) of your favorite Basikin-Robbins' ice cream in a cup or a cone on us. Simply sign in, download your coupon, then head out to the party.

Availabale at over 3,423 select Baskin-Robbins locations throughout the world!"

Re:News Site Slowing Down...

[entrager]

Actually when I worked at a grocery store we were told that ice creams sells best during the winter months. I don't know how true that is, but having worked there and paying semi-close attention to that oddity, I think I can say it certainly seemed that way. Perhaps it was just a trick of the mind though.

Re:News Site Slowing Down...

[Tenebrious1]

Actually when I worked at a grocery store we were told that ice creams sells best during the winter months.

Well, it's different for a store and an ice cream shop. I go to an ice cream shop during the summer, but wouldn't think of walking into one in the winter. On the other hand, since I'm home more often in the winter, I'll pick up a quart of ice cream to eat while watching a movie, something I don't do too much of during the summer.

Yahoo & Google

[LittleGuernica]

When I searched google to find info on Yahoo's funding of google,(I typed in "google yahoo") the first result I got was google.yahoo.com, wich is odd. The site doens't work by the way.. Anybody care to explain how that can be?

Re:Yahoo & Google

[myc_lykaon]

Yahoo used to pay Google for their searches. It used to be that by the searchbox on Yahoo had the splash "powered by Google(tm)"

Re:Yahoo & Google

[Evangelion]

Google used to provide 'fallback' search results to Yahoo when Yahoo couldn't find things in it's directory.

Re:Yahoo & Google

[deadmongrel]

If i remember right yahoo used inktomi, google as their search engine. Until recently yahoo and google results were the same and if you look carefully at the bottom of the page you would see "powered by google".
http://searchenginewatch.com/sereport/article.php/ 2165081 [searchenginewatch.com]

coupon link!

[yincrash]

here is the link to the coupon: http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoo_birthday / [yahoo.com]

Re:coupon link!

[FooAtWFU]

Here is the link to the coupon that doesn't need you to register or anything:
http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/yahoo_birthday /coupon.swf?fName=Anonymous&lName=Coward&lang=us [yahoo.com]

(Silly URL data encoding. Adjust URL parameters to suit your personal needs.)

Damn, that sucks!

[bezuwork's friend]

The coupon printed out in a full page of color. Having just bought an HP color cartridge, I'm wondering if it just isn't cheaper to buy the ice cream directly.

Re:coupon link!

[porcupine8]

Was it just me, or did the actual coupon (after signing in, etc) only load in IE for other people?

Re:coupon link!

[potus98]

worked in Firefox 1.0 for me

Re:coupon link!

[anonicon]

FYI, I loaded it fine in Mozilla 1.7.2 on Windows 2K and have it here on the desk next to me.

No regrets, HAH!

[Parallax Blue]

I'm sure Yahoo must have SOME regrets after seeing how successful Google has become, and it's definitely taking traffic away from their own search engine. Anyone worth their salt on the internet has used Google at least once or uses it daily. Yahoo can't be happy about that. But they're moving in the right direction with free ice cream, can't beat that.

Big Spenders

[pmike_bauer]

Joining the celebration is Baskin Robbins, which is serving up a free scoop of ice cream

One scoop?

Re:Big Spenders

[XorNand]

My Internet using ass certainly doesn't need any more than one scoop. :-(

Just be thankful it's not "offer only valid if you jog to the store".

Re:Big Spenders

[rtaylor]

Get another Yahoo account and give them both coupons. There, 2 scoops. Not stack one on the other, and give them back one of the cones.

slightly off topic but....

[dhbiker]

has yahoo ever posted a profit in its 10 years? From RTFA it says yahoo is worth $44 billion and last year sales were $3.6 billion, it makes no mention of any profit though which leads me to the conclusion that either

a) the profits really aren't that spectatular
b) they don't make any profit

Re:slightly off topic but....

[Anonymous Coward]

For the fiscal year ended 12/31/04, revenues totaled $3.57 billion, up from $1.63 billion. Net income totaled $839.6 million, up from $237.9 million. Results reflect increased marketing services, fees and listings sales resulted from growth in Yahoo!'s organic sales and acquisitions and investment gains.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=YHOO [yahoo.com] is your friend.

Re:slightly off topic but....

[GregGardner]

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.03/yahoo.htm l

According to wired magazine, Yahoo's profit in the last fiscal year was $542 million as compared to Google's $223 million. So it's more than double the profit for Yahoo than Google on roughly 20% more revenue. Not bad. Click on the thunbnail in the left column with the magnifying glasses to see the pretty graphs.

Re:slightly off topic but....

[david duncan scott]

This wasn't really hard to find [yahoo.com]. I suck with money, but that looks like profit to me.

Re:slightly off topic but....

[Ironsides]

here's a link on profits http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/01 /17/daily19.html [bizjournals.com]

That done, profits don't always matter when calculating the value of a company. What usually matters is how much their assets are worth.

Baskin Robins!

[malus]

Well, looks like I'm not getting my free scoop. Walmart has run Baskin Robins out of town.

Re:Baskin Robins!

[nizo]

Dear Baskin Robbins,
Since I am too fat and lazy from eating your product to go get some down at the local store and my friend malus doesn't have one where he lives, could you drop a few free scoops into envelopes and mail them to us please? Thanks.

Nothing like a thimble full of ice cream

[Anonymous Coward]

After shoveling 10" of wet, heavy snow.

Assertion not supported by article

[ptbarnett]

The Birthday Boys claim that they are happy with the steady growth of their company, and expressed no regrets for their "once upon a time" decision to fund Google. "Competition is good," they said prior to the opening bell this morning."

I emailed the on-duty editor about this, but apparently it didn't get there in time.

The article actually says:

"My guess is that they will do a good job," Semel said of Microsoft's increasing emphasis on search engine technology. "I welcome that. It's good to have good competition."

Perhaps another source indicates that Yang and Filo don't regret funding Google. But, it isn't cited here.

Re:Assertion not supported by article

[gkuz]

I emailed the on-duty editor about this

And you actually expected something to happen?

Save the e-mail and send it again after they post a dupe of this story tomorrow.

Yahoo indeed

[mrpuffypants]

Wow. On my 21st birthday I get free Ice Cream just for sharing a birthday with Yahoo.

Life truly is wonderful. :p

Re:Yahoo indeed

[SlayerofGods]

Today's your birthday too?
Wow this is like some eerie cosmic coincidence.
I mean what are the odds one of the 3 people have made me their friend has the same birthday as me and mentions it in a place I'd see.....

Re:Yahoo indeed

[afidel]

If you're smart and somewhat personable you'll get a lot more than just icecream free today. Go to a couple bars. Buy a drink or two. Talk to the bartender, and after a while mention it's your 21st. Chances are you will get a free drink or two at each place =)

We could use some free ice here too!

[Yomers]

We could use some free ice cream too, here in Russia.. But no, as always with nice free cheesy stuff, like ipods or icecream or whatever, it's US only ;)

Not just US

[eobanb]

Actually, the free ice cream is available at any Baskin-Robbins, not just ones in the US. There aren't any in Russia I'm afraid, but there are in Canada, Korea, Britain, Australia, Puerto Rico...

Baskin Robbins sucks

[tuxette]

Why bother getting the free scoop? Free crap is still crap...

My homemade ice cream kicks Baskin Robbins' ass any day....

Mango ice cream (you need an ice cream maker for this)

300 g. pureed flesh of honey mango
90 g. sugar
2 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 dl cream, whipped until almost stiff
2 dl whole milk (lowfat is OK)
1 egg yolk

Mix all ingredients except cream together. Fold in cream, blend well. Chill mixture according to ice cream maker's instructions. This will take around 40 minutes.

Re:Baskin Robbins sucks

[LordNimon]

What's "dl"?

Re:Baskin Robbins sucks

[tuxette]

deciliters ;-)

Re:Baskin Robbins sucks

[DAldredge]

Once again showing that the metric system isn't perfect for every purpose...

Re:Baskin Robbins sucks

[tuxette]

At least you can get some damn good ice cream out of it!

Re:Baskin Robbins sucks

[pklong]

Probably because he actually uses a tablespoon to measure it.

He might be from the UK where we are still very confused over or measurements. If they try to swap a pint of beer for a 500ml glass for example there would be hell to pay (and yes, they undoubtedly would use the smaller measurement).

he?!

[tuxette]

Let's see. My name is tuxette. And to add to that, I posted an ice cream recipe on slashdot. And you think I'm a he?

Stop taking that "there are no women on /." myth too seriously...

Oh, and I'm an American living in Europe...

here you go

[tuxette]

Show us your tits.

(.)(.)

Re:Baskin Robbins sucks

[tuxette]

try here [sciencemadesimple.net] ;-)

Re:Baskin Robbins sucks

[tuxette]

Do Tbsp and Tsp get used often in Europe or elsewhere in the world

Yeah. These seem to be universal. But at least in Norway, you also find some bizarre units of measurement for spices and the such and it's relatively easy to find conversions in tsp/tbsp. I otherwise have measuring cups in both imperial and Metric to use for American (and sometimes Brit) and European/Asian recipes. I'm generally too lazy to do any conversions ;-)

As for weight vs volume, there is a difference, at least in baking. I'll have

Wisconsin and 31 flavors

[sameerdesai]

There is no Baskin Robins I knows of in Wisconsin... well in Madison... that sucks!!!

One scoop of Rocky Road, please

[tinrobot]

...not that it's symbolic or anything.

Would Microsoft say this?

[rsborg]

The Birthday Boys claim that they are happy with the steady growth of their company, and expressed no regrets for their "once upon a time" decision to fund Google. "Competition is good," they said prior to the opening bell this morning."

Ballmer would get canned for saying something like this.

Free ice cream in winter?

[SunFan]

Or is this for our friends in the bottom half of this planet?

What I don't understand is...

[confusion]

Why do companies like yahoo and msn continue to fund their search engine initiatives? I know that they want to kick google to the curb for search engine mindshare, but it's not happening. If you run a website, take a look at your stats. Mine are roughly 99% google and 1% is made up from yahoo, msn and the others.

I think the search engines are primarily a vehicle to bring traffic to their sites, and intersperse some ads in the mix. The cost of ads, being driven by the number of views, can't be all that

Re:Yahoo, actually works well

[confusion]

I really wasn't referring at all to the effectiveness of the search engines, only the number of people that appear to me to be using them. I also have found yahoo to be better when I'm seriously trying to find something.

Jerry
http://www.syslog.org/ [syslog.org]

Pseudonym

[someguy456]

Unfortunately, the coupons are generated dynamically, to include your name. I suppose the pseudonym I chose for Yahoo, "Some guy" wasn't the best choice: "Some Guy is joining Yahoo!'s 10th birthday fun..."

see the original front page

[dhbiker]

has anyone seen the yahoo page from '95!?! http://www.yahoo.com/_ylh=X3oDMTEwdnZjMjFhBF9TAzI3 MTYxNDkEdGVzdAMwBHRtcGwDaW5kZXgtY3Nz/s/231504 [yahoo.com]

Re:see the original front page

[Anita Coney]

My god, that brings back memories. Did Yahoo ever have a gopher site?!

I was wondering if that was out there...

[FirstNoel]

I remember sitting in the Comp lab thinking, "wow" the Yahoo thing is kinda cool, alot like Gopher.

Good times...

Re:see the original front page

[xtracto]

That is a cool page, it is interesting to see how the Yahoo! homepage has evolved from the one you show until what it is today, I was curious(??) and went to The Archive [archive.org] of course, between months there is not much difference, but what about between each year!

The sad thing, is that the archive only have yahoo! pages from 1996...

Linking Conventions? A rant and a MIRROR

[The-Perl-CD-Bookshel]

Joining the celebration is Baskin Robbins [mirrordot.org], which is serving up a free scoop of ice cream in honor of the day Yahoo began climbing the ranks from its humble beginning.

If your going to link just the name Baskin Robbins [baskinrobbins.com], shouldn't that go to their corporate site for more information about the company? Should the article not be linked to the "...serving up a free scoop of ice cream... [mirrordot.org]" part? There should be a standard, where you link articles to the verb and nouns are used for clarification.

As a shareholder

[FidelCatsro]

Im Don't know if i can support this
On one side its sure to gain Yahoo alot of goodwill , also hopefully increase the sharevalue.
On the other hand , i live nowhere near a baskin robins and really want an icecream

(nostalgia ahead)

[StandardDeviant]

Man, 1995... I still remember being awed by the way that places like yahoo.com and hotwired.com looked in Netscape (was 2.0 even out yet? I forget, heh), compared to what I was used to before that (stuff like pine or gopher running on green-screen terms). I was 16 at the time, in college a couple of years early, and looking back (20/20 hindsight and all that), I wish I'd taken the hint on my early fascination and gone into programming/web-related studies and jobs then instead of chemistry... I guess I felt obligated to pursue a "real job" like chemistry. Here, ten years later, I'm a programmer and chemistry is just sort of my side hobby. I wonder sometimes what my life would have been like had I gotten into CS and gone into the IT workforce by '97-'98 instead of picking it up as hobby later and entering the IT workforce right before the bust.

Anyway, for some good nostalgia, here you go:
Archive of old versions of Netscape back to 1.1 days on multiple platforms [evolt.org]
Wayback machine link for Yahoo! front page, late 1996 [archive.org] (hotwired.com excludes wayback, darn it... i recall it being visually louder than a hawaiian shirt on fire. the current wired.com is actually subdued compared to what I recall it being)

Fine Print: First 300 only ...

[un1xl0ser]

Fine Print:

Limit one coupon per customer, where supplies last, or for the first 300 coupons presented for redemption at each store.

FYI ...

Anyone read the fine print on the coupon?

[YukiKotetsu]

Limit one coupon per customer while supplies last, or for the first 300 coupons presented for redemption at each store, whichever is less. Good only at participating continentals U.S. stores.

Consumer may pay applicable tax. ... so reading that, if more than 300 people actually redeem this, I'm out? I have to pay tax on it if I try to eat in the place? Of course, they can choose to not participate as well.

I'm going here tonight with my girlfriend for free ice cream. If they don't honor my coupon, I'm k

Re:Anyone read the fine print on the coupon?

[iammrjvo]

Print coupon then... photocopy, get free ice cream, repeat...

Google investment regrets?

[3cents]

I'm not sure why anyone would question this. It's common practice for companies to invest in competitors to ensure their future existance. The logic being that the dominate company knows the sector will succeed and so it invests in up and coming companies in the sector knowing that if the newcomer takes the sector as google has they will still have a (usually sizable) intrest in the sector. Think of it as insurance or hedging. It's a good idea.

-3cents

Anyone find it kinda ridiculous

[Sark666]

That Yahoo is worth twice as much as General Motors. What did yahoo do that's so great. I mean look at how they looked in 95.

http://promo.yahoo.com/birthday10/incorporation/ [yahoo.com]

It's just a bunch of links. I thought they'd die after the bubble burst, but
I guess you can never underestimate the power of being first.

Weird?

[Reignking]

Here's the title on the article:
Weird? Baskin Robbins Celebrates Yahoo!'s 10th Birthday...

But the TITLE on my browser reads
Weird Baskin Robbins Celebrates Yahoo!'s 10th Birthday...

Yahoo: Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle

[Sundroid]

There is a fascinating interview of Filo and Yang dated 5/23/1995 that offers some interesting historical tidbits about the company. Here is the link: http://www.sun.com/950523/yahoostory.html [sun.com]

In that 1995 interview, the duo proudly claimed having 250,000 users. Today, that number is a "pathetic" 345 million.

For two geeks from Stanford, they've done well, wouldn't you agree?

Ob. Simpsons Reference

[CrazyTalk]

"I'm really enjoying the so-called 'iced - cream' " - Mr. Burns

Nothing New

[Dynedain]

Baskin Robins does this once a year (and some of the other chains like Ben & Jerry's does it too).

They're just using Y! as an excuse to get more publicity (read free advertising) out of it.

Mine didn't take the coupon!

[Lothar+0]

"Sorry, but they didn't tell us about it," the woman at the counter said when I presented my print-out. Everyone here, call ahead to see whether or not your BR is participating in this.

As for me, since Dunkin Donuts is the same company as BR, I'm taking my business to Krispy Kreme and Cold Stone Cremery instead.

The last time Baskin Robbins had free ice cream

[angle_slam]

I forgot the reason, but Baskin Robbins offered free ice cream sometime last year. The line for ice cream went around the building. It's not worth the wait.

Re:So this means????

[DamienMcKenna]

yeah, there's nothing better than eating icecream when its below freezing :-)

Damien

Re:So this means????

[Quill_28]

Never it is too cold to eat ice cream. Never.

Re:So this means????

[DarkVader]

French fish???

Re:yummm

[Quill_28]

Daiquiri Ice

Re:yummm

[calibanDNS]

Try their lemon custard. It's awesome, though the store near me often doesn't have it in.

Re:yummm

[Paralizer]

Their current ice cream flavor list is here http://www.baskin-robbins.com/treats/flavor_list.s html [baskin-robbins.com].

Re:Shades of Reese's

[Afrosheen]

"Hey, you got Google in my Yahoo"

I bet in certain parts of the world, that refers to a certain sex act, or at least, the immediately post-coital part.

word

[SweetAndSourJesus]

The ice cream is only free if the time it takes you to get to the store is worth nothing.

Re:word

[carlivar]

Then "free beer" is only beer that someone brings directly to you, and optionally pours into your mouth for you?

I don't like your outlook on life.

Carl

Re:Sorry but..

[Anita Coney]

I for one welcome our ice cream freezing overlords.

Re:Damn... I wish it was Carvel

[calibanDNS]

Why couldn't it be Dippin' Dots [dippindots.com], the Ice Cream of the Future?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Why?

[Big_Al_B]

Two possibilities (in no order, with no claims of likelihood):

Yahoo indexes more sites?

Google does better at culling/surpressing dups & subordinate content?

Re:Soy ice cream?

[tuxette]

Soy is worse for you [stumptuous.com].