We want to share our pride, gratitude and excitement on this 15^th birthday, with all Yahoo! users (600 million of them), customers and partners.  It continues to be an incredible ride for the two of us, as well as for thousands of Yahoo! employees we have had the privilege of working with over the years.

We’ve had the unique opportunity to help create an industry and shape the online world, and will continue to focus on the values that brought us here —working hard, having fun, being passionate about your ideas, believing in each other, and always trying to invent the future.  And as we celebrate 15 years today, we are even more excited than ever about what lies ahead, and the potential of Yahoo! and the Internet.

Of course, we didn’t set out to start one of the world’s largest Internet companies or be leading a movement that has changed the world. We were just a couple of Stanford graduate students doing our research (supposedly) while our professor was on sabbatical.

More interesting than our research was our total fascination with the web and all the cool stuff it suddenly made available. But it was incredibly hard to keep track of the thousands of great websites sprouting up everywhere.  We thought it would be fun to catalog the sites by developing a simple directory. So all this began with nothing more than a hobby to help other early Internet users.

Amazing things happen when we’re doing what’s fun.

We soon learned a huge lesson just as relevant today as then: change and growth on the Internet happen at warp speed—especially if you’re filling a need. With the proliferation of websites and with hundreds of thousands of people accessing our guide, it was simply impossible for us to continue doing this on our own.

Taking big steps takes belief in yourself—and in others.

After many late nights and a lot of pizza, we decided to take the big leap, turn our hobby into a business, raise money and devote ourselves totally to building a company.  This was no sure thing.  For example, 15 years ago, we wanted a free service that was ad-supported. But the conventional wisdom was that our business needed to be subscription-based. Few people thought that advertising could be the key revenue generator for the Internet. Of course, the conventional wisdom was wrong and so today we know that August, 1995, the month our first ad went live, was a critical milestone in the history of Yahoo!, as well as the history of the internet.

Focus on the future: it still looks phenomenal.

Internet growth continues to be simply phenomenal, and we’re nowhere near done.  Fifteen years ago, there were 18,000 web sites and fewer than 10 million people globally on the Internet—less than one third of a single percent of the world’s population at the time. Today there are more than 200 million websites with 90,000 created daily. There are estimated to be 1.6 billion people on the internet today—about 25 percent of the world’s population.

These numbers are astonishing, but even more important and more exciting is the impact that the Internet is having on so many people around the world.  From socio-economic opportunities to more accessible health care to educating the next generation and beyond, the Internet has changed the way we live, work and learn.  It has overcome geographic and political barriers and has made it possible for people to raise their voices as they seek greater economic opportunity and freedom.  And Yahoo! has been a leader in enabling these tremendous technological advancements every step of the way.

Let’s aim to be even prouder fifteen years from now than we are today!

All this in just 15 years. Yahoo! has been built by thousands of dedicated employees, hundreds of millions of loyal users and scores of advertisers who envisioned a future that was exciting, challenging and at times daunting.  To work in the sandbox that is Yahoo! and the evolution of the Internet is truly amazing.

And yet as fast as the Internet and Yahoo! have grown and as remarkably our lives have changed, we are just at the beginning of this great transformation.

The Internet still has enormous and untapped potential.  There are billions of more people we need to drive online, and then provide them with relevant content and opportunities that they’ve never dreamed about before.

We are confident that 15 years from today, we will look back in marvel  at how far you, and the Internet have traveled in such a short time. Just as we are doing today.

Jerry Yang and David Filo

Co-Founders & Chief Yahoos

To celebrate our 15th Birthday we are hosting a trivia challenge on Twitter (say that five times fast!) featuring 15 questions across our global properties, helping you search and discover all the exciting things Yahoo! has to offer!

How the trivia challenge works: We will post each of the 15 questions on our official Yahoo! Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/yahoo) every hour, starting on March 2nd, 2010 at 8 AM PT. Each question will start with a question number, such as “Q1”, “Q2”, and so on. Find the answer to each question by using the link we provide to the Yahoo! site where the answer can be found. Tweet your response to @yahoo using the hashtag #Y15a. Start your answer with the letter “A” (for “answer”), and the number of the question you’re answering. So, for example, if you’re answering question 5, your reply should look something like:

A5 <this is your answer to Question 5> #y15a.

Easy enough? You can get one entry for each question you answer, for up to 15 possible entries in the challenge. You have until 8 AM on March 5, 2010 to get all of your answers back to us. After the challenge is over, we’ll select the winners from among all the eligible entries we received during the entry period.

What you are playing for: One Grand Prize winner will receive a Nikon Cool Pix S230 Yahoo! Camera and a Jawbone Earcandy Bluetooth Headset (ARV $305). Plus, four first prize winners will each receive a Mimobot Yahoo! USB flash drive. (ARV $20)

Anything else you should know? Our friend Matt the lawyer would also like you know that there’s no purchase necessary and the challenge is void where prohibited. The challenge is open to legal residents of the fifty United States, the District of Columbia, and Canada, excluding the Province of Quebec, who are 18 and older.

Happy hunting!

Start now by following us on Twitter: @Yahoo

For the complete list of rules, click here

In a keynote speech at the 4A’s Transformation 2010 conference today, Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz stated that Yahoo! can bring advertisers a combination of strengths that no one else can, because only Yahoo! offers them three things: science, art and scale.

Speaking to the advertising industry group in San Francisco, Carol said, “We want Yahoo! to be the partner you turn to for answers and solutions, and most importantly—when you want results.” By providing science, art and scale, Yahoo can help advertisers and agencies master online advertising.

To read more about Carol’s  4A’s keynote and Yahoo’s value proposition to advertisers, please check out the original post on the Yahoo! Advertising Blog.

We all know that the Web makes the world a much smaller place, and we have some great news to share today that will make your Web world smaller and easier, while at the same time expanding your social world online! We’re partnering with Twitter to integrate their real-time social experience into our global network.

What does this mean for you? Very soon, you will be able to see your Twitter feed on Yahoo! just as easily as you use Yahoo! to consume all of the other great content you love from across the Web. Through today’s partnership, along with our recently announced Facebook relationship, Yahoo! is giving your online social life wings to help you stay in touch with the people and things you care about most across the Web. It’s part of our strategy to ensure that Yahoo! delivers the people and things that matter most to you!

Want to see your friends’ latest Twitter posts? Or update your Twitter feed with stories and content from Yahoo!? Or check out trending topics and public updates? You no longer need to stop what you’re doing to see what’s going on with your Twitterverse — you’ll be able to do it all from Yahoo!.

As part of Yahoo!’s Open Strategy (Y!OS) to make the Web more open and relevant, we’re helping you zero in on what’s important to you:

• Coming Soon: Read your personal Twitter feeds directly from Yahoo!’s many products and properties, including the homepage, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! Sports, and others — anywhere you can see Yahoo! Updates across our network.
• Coming Soon: Update your Twitter status and share content from Yahoo! in your Twitter stream — we’ve made it even easier to share what’s going on with your friends and followers on Yahoo! and Twitter.
• Coming Soon: Whenever you produce social actions on any website (like comments on articles, ratings, buzzes on Yahoo! Buzz) that you’ve allowed to appear on Yahoo! Updates, those actions can also be shared automatically with your friends on Twitter. (Pssst: Publishers and developers interested in learning more about Yahoo! Updates, including publishing directly into it or using Yahoo! Buzz or the Yahoo! Application Platform as ways of driving social traffic to your site, look here , here and here.
• Coming Soon: Yahoo! media properties like News, Finance, Entertainment, and Sports will include real-time public Twitter updates, allowing you to get a quick pulse-check on topics, trending and otherwise.
• Available Today: Yahoo! Search users will immediately see real-time Twitter results starting today.

The real-time Search integration is available immediately, with other features of the integration to be launched later this year. Go on, give it a test flight: Go to Yahoo! Search to check out how we just made your Web world smaller, yet larger at the same time.

Bryan Lamkin
SVP, Consumer Products Group, Yahoo!

We just announced with Microsoft that we have reached clearance for our search agreement, without restrictions, from both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission.  We’ll now turn our attention to beginning the process of implementing the deal.

Here are some useful links to get more detailed information about today’s developments:

Search Alliance Official Website

Official Press Release

Yahoo! Search Blog

YDN Blog

Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

Yahoo! Transition Center

Video: Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz discusses Yahoo! & Microsoft’s new Search Alliance: Click here

Video: Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz talks about Yahoo’s continued innovation in search: Click here

Official US DOJ Antitrust Division statement: Click here

We will continue to update Yodel with new information today and throughout the process.

Dibble here…Jerry Yang, Scott Noteboom and I were joined by Governor Dave Heineman of Nebraska, Mayor Douglas Kindig of La Vista, Attorney General Jon Bruning and Nebraska Congressman Lee Terry, and hundreds of guests, as we celebrated the grand opening of Yahoo!’s new state-of-the-art data center in La Vista, Nebraska and our new sales and customer support center in Omaha. We are so grateful to the residents and local businesses in Nebraska with whom we could not have succeeded without their support.  Yahoo! serves billions of advertisements each day and services more than 600 million users from around the world each month and this data center is just one of many we’re building that will streamline our efficiency, while helping the planet. Yahoo! thanks Nebraska for being a part of the next phase of growth for the Internet.

David Dibble – EVP Service Engineering & Operations

For everyone interested in following excitement of the Winter Games that get underway today, Yahoo! makes it even easier for you to get all your information, even if you are on the go.  In addition to keeping fans on top of the action with a Games-dedicated website, today we’re launching a new Olympic mobile site at m.yahoo.com/olympics.

It’s the place to go when you’re out and about and want up-to-the-minute coverage on this year’s Games. You’ll get access to everything from live results, upcoming events, medal counts, and photos to news, expert commentary, and more—all from your phone. We’ve also integrated Olympics into our mobile search results, so you can easily find what you need fast.

So head over to the newly launched  Yahoo! Mobile Blog to get a preview video of the mobile Olympic experience and all of the other cool mobile things we are are doing at Yahoo!

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games kick off this week and like the King (aka, Elvis Presley) says, “I’m all shook up!”  The Winter Games are a special and emotional experience for me and I’m thrilled to be working with Yahoo! Sports in my home country to report first hand on all the action.

I’ve been skating since I was four years old and have experienced every Winter Olympics, either watching or competing, since that time.  I’ve had some incredible memories over the years, from winning my first Olympic medal at the 1994 games in Lillehammer and learning how to snowboard after competing at the 2002 games in Salt Lake.  But nothing beats that feeling of going to the Games to compete and stepping out on the ice for the first time.

I won’t be lacing up my skates in Vancouver but it’s going to be fun covering this year’s athletes as Yahoo! Sports Winter Games Analyst. I’m especially stoked about seeing up-and-comers like Kim Yu-Na from Korea, Evan Lysacek from the USA along with Mr. Comeback Evgeny Plushenko hit the ice for the individual figure skating events. But rest assured that I’ll make time to see some of my other favorite events like Short Track Speed Skating, Snowboarding and the Ski Jump.

Yahoo! is also letting fans get into the action by submitting their favorite winter sports photos in the “Winter Sports Moment” sweepstakes
at http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/fancouver. Fans get a chance to win prizes like digital cameras, and even a trip to the U.S.
Freestyle Skiing Championship in March. My colleagues and I are going to be covering all the events live from Vancouver over the next two weeks,
so keep checking back at Yahoo! Sports  for the latest and greatest news on the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Elvis Stojko

Yahoo! Sports Winter Games Analyst

Want to use your Yahoo! ID to tap into Arianna Huffington’s mind? How about any of the other contributors on the Huffington Post? If so, we have some good news. Starting today, you can use your Yahoo! ID to log into the Huffington Post with just a couple of clicks.

This is just one of the new features Huffington Post has enabled by tapping into our Yahoo! Open Strategy (Y!OS) platform. Y!OS is built on the idea that Yahoo! is more fun and personally relevant when we’re open to the best of the Web and when we make it easy for you to share and connect with who matters to you on Yahoo!. And in addition to letting you use your trusted Yahoo! ID on the Huffington Post, Y!OS technology is also powering two other great new features that are live today.

The first is Yahoo! Updates. Once you’ve logged into the Huffington Post with your Yahoo! ID, you’ll also be able to automatically share the comments you make there with your friends and contacts on popular products like Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger.

The second is a new application for the Yahoo! Homepage that you can use to get a quick view into the hottest Huffington Post articles across 80 categories in a matter of seconds.

Finally, we’re also teaming up with the Huffington Post through Yahoo! News to feature and develop specialized articles, opinion pieces and reporting. Across Yahoo! we’re always looking for ways to bring you great content, whether it’s our own original reporting through our Yahoo! Newsroom Blogs, or from great sites like the Huffington Post, a leading voice in digital news.

To get started trying out these capabilities and sync up your Huffington Post and Yahoo! experiences, head over to the Huffington Post and click on the log in with Yahoo! ID button, install the new Huffington Post App on Yahoo.com or head straight to Yahoo! News.  Or better yet, try all three.

And if you run your own Web site and want to learn how to integrate with Yahoo!, check out our Yahoo! Developer Network and behind the scenes look at how Huffington Post did it. We’re excited to hear what you think.

Greg Cohn

Director of Strategy & Business Development for the Yahoo! Platform Technology Group

Last week marked the official kickoff of Yahoo!’s two-year sponsorship of the new Yahoo! Cycling Team.  And this past weekend, rider Dirk Copeland defeated 50+ other cyclists to win first place in the Cherry Pie Criterium.  What a fast start for the team!

The Yahoo! Cycling Team was formed by Ikeman Cycling, Inc. who’s mission is to promote young cycling talent in the U.S. and to grow the sport of cycling worldwide.  The team is comprised of a mix of young talent and seasoned cycling veterans.  Based in Northern California, the team plans to race the majority of its season on the West Coast as well as a portion of the National Racing Calendar.  Dependent upon its success in the U.S. circuit in 2010, the team plans to move on to Continental Status in 2011.

“We’re excited to launch this team in a community that is as enthusiastic about cycling as we are,” says Kevin Klein, Ikeman Cycling Owner and Yahoo! Cycling Team General Manager. “Both our young riders and experienced cyclists are eager to get our season under way and establish ourselves as a dominant elite team. “

For more information about the team and the 2010 racing schedule go to the Yahoo! Cycling Team Website (www.cyclingteam.yahoo.com) or follow the team on Facebook [facebook.com/YCyclingTeam] and Twitter [twitter.com/YCyclingTeam]