YAHOO! UNVEILS NEW INTERFACE AS FIRST STEP OF ITS EVOLUTION INTO ONLINE BUSINESS

Mountain View, Calif. -- July 27, 1995 -- Yahoo! Corp. announced today it will unveil a fresh, new interface for its popular online guide, Yahoo!, on Monday, July 31. Yahoo!'s new interface includes timely news updates from Reuters NewMedia, Inc., as well as faster navigation features, colorful graphics and intelligently integrated advertisements from five sponsors. This new look is the first of many changes yet to come in Yahoo!'s evolution from a popular university project into a successful business serving the Internet community. Consumers can get a sneak preview of Yahoo!'s new look before its July 31 debut by accessing the guide's beta version at Uniform Resource Locator (URL) http://beta.yahoo.com.

Started in April 1994 as a hobby of two Stanford University Electrical Engineering Ph.D. students, David Filo and Jerry Yang, Yahoo! is one of the most popular and comprehensive guides to the online world. More than a simple directory or search engine, Yahoo! satisfies a key need of consumers and working professionals to more easily navigate through the Internet and gather meaningful information for both business and pleasure. In one year, Yahoo! has grown to be one of the most frequently visited sites on the Internet's World Wide Web with nearly 3 million hits a day, equal to approximately 300,000 users a day. As a result of Yahoo!'s overwhelming popularity, Filo and Yang are now working on Yahoo! full time. Together with a senior management team, their goal is to make the free guide even more efficient and effective and manage its evolution into a business.

"Although Yahoo! is evolving into an online business it will always remain true to its origin of being a grass-roots guide for the Internet community," explained Yang. "Our new interface is the first of many improvements we have in store for Yahoo! and truly shows our team's commitment to making Yahoo! an even better friend and guide for Internet users."

Demonstrating their commitment to remaining grass-roots, Filo and Yang invited Yahoo! users to become involved in the guide's redesign. A survey was posted on Yahoo! for two-and-one-half weeks to gather feedback from Yahoo!'s users about the effectiveness of the guide's current features, their reasons for using Yahoo! and their most common methods of searching with Yahoo!. The response to the survey was overwhelming. More than 67,000 responses were obtained. Using these survey results, the Yahoo! team was able to address many of its users' immediate wants and needs in the new interface.

Timely News From Reuters

In an effort to keep Internet users better informed of current events and lifestyle trends, Yahoo!'s new interface features timely news updates from Reuters NewMedia, Inc. A "Headlines" button has been added to the Yahoo! home page, which guides users to a news summary page that is updated hourly by Reuters. The summary page enables users to quickly scan current news and identify stories of interest. Complete Reuters articles can be retrieved by clicking on the related news summary. Individual news summaries also will be indexed according to their subject into the primary categories of Yahoo!'s hierarchical index.

"A partnership with Yahoo! is a natural fit for Reuters NewMedia since the guide is home base for most Internet users," said John Taysom, vice president, Reuters NewMedia, Palo Alto. "Yahoo! provides Reuters with an excellent opportunity to re-purpose its news and reach new audiences, and Reuters enables Yahoo! to provide its users with yet another value-added information service."

"News on Yahoo! adds immediacy," said Tim Brady, Yahoo!'s Director of Marketing. "Reuters news adds yet another dimension that enhances Yahoo!'s position as the most current and complete information source on the Net."

Embracing Graphics and Faster Navigation Features

Colorful and embracing graphics have been added to Yahoo!'s new interface to enliven its lean layout and reflect the guide's grass-roots, whimsical spirit. At users' request, the graphics are simple and download quickly. To offer faster navigation, Yahoo! is integrating its search function throughout its hierarchical index. Additionally, the interface features a better classification system, which makes the guide more intuitive. Yahoo!'s popular search functions -- What's Cool, What's Popular, What's News and Random Link -- will remain integral features of Yahoo!'s new interface.

Intelligently Integrated Advertisements

Revenue from sponsors will enable Yahoo! to continue to improve its interface and add additional content to its format while remaining a free service to Internet users. In its new interface, Yahoo! intelligently integrates advertisement from five sponsors participating in a special three-month trial advertising program with Yahoo!. Yahoo!'s five flagship sponsors include Internet Shopping Network, Mastercard, MCI, NECX and Worlds, Inc.

During the following three months, banner advertisements from Yahoo!'s flagship sponsors will be rotated day-by-day through Yahoo!'s five most heavily trafficked Web pages. Yahoo! has enlisted Internet Profiles Corporation (I/PRO) of San Francisco to analyze Yahoo!'s audience viewership during its advertising trial and prepare an I/AUDIT for Yahoo!. The I/AUDIT will help advertisers evaluate the benefits of Yahoo! in comparison to more traditional media and make the most strategic and informed decisions about integrating Yahoo! into their marketing mix. In the upcoming months, Yahoo! plans to intelligently integrate advertisements from additional sponsors into its interface in a manner that will not hinder the guide's effectiveness.

About Yahoo!

Located in Mountain View, Calif., Yahoo! is a company devoted to enabling consumers and working professionals to make the most of their online experiences. Yahoo! publishes the most intuitive, up-to-date and efficient guide for information and online discovery, which bears its same name. Much more than a simple directory or search engine, Yahoo!'s guide enables users to navigate through the Internet and gather their own online information for both business and pleasure. Additionally, the guide is an ideal home base for net surfing. Yahoo! can be found on the Internet's World Wide Web at Uniform Resource Locator (URL) address http://www.yahoo.com.

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