Inside Yahoo: Reinvention and the Road Ahead

by Karen Angel

An intriguing look at an Internet pioneer and global powerhouse Reaching sixty percent of all Net users, Yahoo is one of the most popular Internet portals and one of the most successful companies in the world today. Inside Yahoo takes readers on a fascinating journey through the thoughts and motivations behind the company. Revealing stories of on-again, off-again management, the race for innovation, and the constant focus on survival, this book will...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471007935
• ISBN13: 9780471007937
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Humorous and Informative

I like the style of the author, the reading is fun and humorous but it's full of information on how the Yahoo started and where it is heading now. I like the concept of Yang and Filo, giving to community first before making a profit. The book is definitely a keep for files and future example when building a community websites which i am now. Nat

Highly Recommended!

Inside Yahoo! presents a blow-by-blow chronology of the birth, ascension and downfall of a company that - in terms of business model and stock price - was the archetype of the `90s dot-com. Readers will be hard pressed to identify any relevant fact or event from the life of Yahoo! overlooked by author Karen Angel. What is missed however, is meaty analysis: Did the hubris of Yahoo!'s founders contribute to the company's reversal of fortunes? Angel doesn't speculate. Nevertheless, we from getAbstract recommend her book for its comprehensive recounting of a business tale that truly captures the essence of the Internet boom.

Valuable Rollercoaser Tale -- for your DOT.COM literacy

Of course, when you think Internet, YAHOO! comes to mind immediately. Here it's fascinating to read about the key players, with their contrasting personalities and ingenuity, behind the very modest beginnings of Yahoo!--from a trailer on Stanford U's campus. That's an inspiration for all of us wanna-be's.... And then to watch this dot.com swell to Internet behemoth worth $100+ billion on the stock market--along the way, missing scooping up now-strong e-Bay! Memorable too that a teen hacker even took down this Goliath for a while.... Yahoo did not burn through its venture capital like many others but it failed to leverage its burgeoning superstatus in the marketplace and to fully respond to the competition. The story is a rollercoaster ride with big names you'll recognize and other names you'll come to appreciate, along with some business insights for facing new challenges ahead. A good, absorbing read. This book is important for American business history and for your own dot.com literacy. Highly recommended. -M.J.

More Than a Business Book -- An Adventure Story

"Inside Yahoo!" traces the dot-com's gripping story from grass-roots beginnings to multibillion-dollar market cap. Packed with insights from insiders, the book explores the forces behind Yahoo's rapid transformation from a grad-school project into a public company beholden to investors and Wall Street -- and finally, a troubled dot-com in search of a sustainable business model. Though Yahoo's principals didn't cooperate with Angel, she captures their personalities and foibles through exhaustive interviews with former and current Yahoo employees, corporate partners and industry observers. The context she provides throughout makes the book as much a chronicle of the times -- and of Silicon Valley silliness -- as a history of one company. Ultimately, she poses the important questions about Yahoo's future and whether it can afford to stay independent.

Excellent - well worth your time and money

This book is very well written, informative and entertaining. With its spectacular IPO, rocket ride to ridiculously overvalued levels - and subsequent fall to earth - Yahoo's story (oops, I forgot the !) helps explain the incredible phenomenon that was the Silicon Valley and Internet craze of 1995-2000. In many ways, Yahoo is atypical of most internet companies (they survived, for starters) in that they actually had a workable idea that was sufficently thought out. What a concept. Plus, they had first mover advantage - a crucial element behind their success. Karen Angel has really done her homework. Her book is thoroughly researched, stuffed with plenty of anecdotes and really makes you feel like a fly on the wall to Yahoo's amazing history.