In 1995, Yahoo experimented with a funky and colorful logo, a larger array of categories and subcategories, and buttons such as “Add URL” and “Write Us” by its header. Web search became a prominent site feature, as it remains today.

In 1996, Yahoo dropped the funky logo in favor of a cleaner, monochromatic design. But it kept its now-famous exclamation point. Instead of having categories listed side by side, the company aligned them all along the left for easier scrolling. By then, Yahoo had launched properties such as Yahoo Japan and the children’s site Yahooligans.

This 1998 clip reveals Yahoo’s experimentation with front-and-center banner ads. It later would move a larger, more dynamic ad out of the header area. By this point, Yahoo had local-language sites all over Europe and Asia. It also maintained sites focused on U.S. cities ranging from Boston to Minneapolis, Minn.

In 2000, Yahoo, which had long since gone back to multiple columns of categories and subcategories, prominently displayed its instant-messaging client and its various Yahoo Shopping stores. It also featured top news stories, community pages Yahoo Clubs and eBay competitor Yahoo Auctions.

In 2002, Yahoo Personals took center stage. So did the company’s e-mail service. Localization was still a primary home page focus, as was news aggregation.

In 2003, job ads from HotJobs, plus sports content, got special attention. The page became significantly longer, though links seemed a bit less clustered. Entertainment got its own purple tab below Marketplace.

HotJobs, by 2004 a Yahoo unit, got primary real estate on the company’s home page that year. The company also featured its broadband partnership with SBC Communications, now owned by AT&T. In addition, it stopped featuring the local Yahoo units and instead gave tabs to products like “Buzz Log – What the world is searching for” and ZIP code-centered weather reports. rn

rnPersonalized “My Yahoo” pages got prominent play, as did Yahoo’s “Desktop Search” beta.