Here's a bit of history for those of you who have been SquirrelNet.com fans since our launch in 1999. Back then, we had picked a site called GoTo.com as our top rated search engine, while Yahoo was rated low due to poor search performance at the time. (Way back then, Google was just getting started.) We liked GoTo.com because they had a simple interface and, at the time, were the best at serving up relevant search results. In fact, they summarized their positioning by the statement "Search Made Simple".
For some reason, GoTo.com changed their name to Overture Services in 2001, perhaps to reposition themselves as a company that serves search results to other companies (which is what they were doing then, moving away from their original "Search Made Simple" moniker).
In 2003, Yahoo bought Overture Services for $1.6 billion, an amount most nowadays consider cheap given that the acquisition of Overture Services is what is driving most of Yahoo's revenue and profit today.
Now in 2005, Yahoo has formally changed the name of Overture Services to Yahoo! Search Marketing Services. Of course, by now most have forgotten about Overture and GoTo.com, that's why we wanted to deliver this history lesson.
We miss you GoTo.com!
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