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Yahoo! is a web portal that provides a search engine, a hierarchical directory of websites, and other web services like news, email, and shopping. The name is a backronym for "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle". Originally started as a hobby by Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1994, they chose the name because it was an acronym that also referenced the slang term "yahoo," which means a crude or unsophisticated person.

Search Engine and Directory: Yahoo! began as "Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web," a directory of websites organized by category. "Hierarchical" refers to this layered, categorized structure of the site.

"Oracle": The "oracle" part of the acronym was meant to signify a source of wisdom and truth online.

"Officious": This word was used to describe the many office workers who would use the database while surfing from work.

Alternative Acronym: In its early days, it was sometimes also referred to as "Yet Another Hierarchical Object Organizer".

Original Name Choice: Founders Jerry Yang and David Filo also picked the name because they liked the slang definition of "yahoo," which derives from the book Gulliver's Travels and means an uncouth, brutish person. They jokingly referred to themselves as such.