Yahoo! Kids (known as Yahoo!きっず in Japan) is a public

web portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayi ...

provided by

Yahoo! Japan is a Japanese internet company originally formed as a joint venture between the American internet company Yahoo! (later divested by Verizon into Altaba) and the Japanese company SoftBank. It is headquartered at Kioi Tower in the Tokyo Garden Te ...

to find

age appropriate Age appropriateness refers to people behaving as predicted by their perspective timetable of development. The perspective timetable is embedded throughout people's social life, primarily based on socially-agreed age expectations and age norms. Fo ...

online content for children between the ages of 4 and 12. This site was formerly available in English via

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Mana ...

, where it was known as Yahooligans! until December 2006, and in Korean via

Yahoo! Korea Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Manage ...

. The website is used for both educational and entertainment purposes. It was introduced in March 1996 by

to give children a venue to find appropriate, safe Internet content. Yahoo! Kids was the oldest online search directory for children. Yahoo! Kids was discontinued in English on April 30, 2013, allowing the company to redirect their resources to their mobile applications.

History

Yahoo! Kids, originally known as Yahooligans!, was founded in March 1996 by

to provide children with a venue to find appropriate, safe Internet content. The website was the oldest online search directory for children. The website's editors stated that Yahoo! Kids was "cool, goofy, fascinating, fun, hysterical, philosophical, surprising, sedate, silly, seismic, popular, obscured, useful, and interesting". In October 1999, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' reporter

Michelle Slatalla Michelle Slatalla is an American journalist and humorist. Currently, she writes a monthly column for the '' Wall Street Journal'' about interior design. Previously, she was a columnist for '' The New York Times'', '' TIME'' magazine, '' Real Si ...

noted that Yahooligans! was a "heavily trafficked site", with 463,000 visitors accessing the website in August 1999. In October 1999, the website received an

Alexa Internet Alexa Internet, Inc. was an American web traffic analysis company based in San Francisco. It was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon. Alexa was founded as an independent company in 1996 and acquired by Amazon in 1999 for $250 million in stoc ...

rank of 991 out of 22 million content websites. In 2004, Yahoo! entered into a partnership with

DIC Entertainment DIC Entertainment Corporation (; also known as DIC Audiovisuel, DIC Enterprises, DIC Animation City, DIC Entertainment, L.P., and DIC Productions), branded as The Incredible World of DIC, was an international film and television production com ...

(now

WildBrain WildBrain Ltd. (formerly known as DHX Media, Ltd.) is a Canadian media, animation studio, production, and brand licensing company, mostly associated as an entertainment company. The company is known for owning the largest library of childr ...

) to establish Yahooligans! TV, which gave users access to DIC's 3,000 hours of animated children programs. DIC president Brad Brooks stated that the partnership "offer dadvertisers a cross platform purchase". Yahoo! sold the ads and the revenue from the commercials was split between the two companies.

Content

The website was used for both educational and entertainment purposes. The Yahoo! Kids' portal had directories such as "Around the World", "Arts & Entertainment", "Computers & Games", "School Bell", "Science & Nature", and "Sports & Recreation". Under the directory "School Bell", the category "Homework Answers" allowed children to access websites pertaining to school subjects such as geography, history, and math. Under "Around the World", children could learn about countries, politics, and history. The "Art Soup" directory taught children about museums and drama, and the "Scoop" let them look at comics and newspapers. It had an

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. new ...

section to let children read age-appropriate articles. The parents' section of the website contained advice about being safe while browsing the Internet and links to services that "block and filter websites". The teachers' section contained lesson plans for "planning, implementing and assessing integrated units". It was separated into three ranks: kindergarten through second grade, third through fifth grade, and sixth to eighth grade. Educational professionals and former teachers screened each website listed in Yahooligans. The homepage displayed links to games, jokes, news, and sports. For the latter three, the content was crafted for those younger than 12. Yahooligans! directed viewers to child-friendly websites like those from

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

and

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

. It adopted the persona of

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

's pet cat,

Socks A sock is a piece of clothing worn on the feet and often covering the ankle or some part of the calf. Some types of shoes or boots are typically worn over socks. In ancient times, socks were made from leather or matted animal hair. In the late ...

, to introduce viewers to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in ...

's website in 1995. Games provided on the Yahoo! Kids website included Chinese checkers,

Go Fish Go Fish or Fish is a card game usually played by two to five players,
although it can be played wi ...

, and

Checkers Checkers (American English), also known as draughts (; British English), is a group of strategy board games for two players which involve diagonal moves of uniform game pieces and mandatory captures by jumping over opponent pieces. Checkers ...

. Age-appropriate offsite games were also accessible via the links under the "games" tab. The website offered an

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and tri ...

gadget that allowed children to participate in live chats with notable people, such as

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...

, and

Bill Nye the Science Guy ''Bill Nye the Science Guy'' is an American science education television program created by Bill Nye, James McKenna, and Erren Gottlieb, with Nye starring as a fictionalized version of himself. It was produced by television station KCTS and McK ...

. In March 2011, Yahoo! Kids partnered with the TV series '' Star Wars: The Clone Wars'' near the season's finale to have children pose questions to Chewbacca. Question submissions were posted on SurveyMonkey, and Yahoo! Kids posted Chewbacca's answers on March 28. The approximately three minute long video consisted of Chewbacca pantomiming responses to queries such as "How do you deal with all that hair?"

Reviews

In August 1996, Greg Mefford of ''The Galveston Daily News'' (later renamed to '' The Daily News'') stated that Yahooligans is "as much fun as it is educational, with links to darn near everything". '' Kokomo Tribune'' columnist Amy Irick wrote in January 1998 that Yahooligans! was a "great alternative to the Yahoo! search engine for younger computer users". In August 1999, Irick said that Yahooligans! was "very user friendly, just like its parent Yahoo!" and that its teachers' guide is a "must see for teachers". '' Indiana Gazette''s John Smathers wrote in June 2002, "I can't mention kids sites without mentioning Yahooligans.com", praising the website as a "great tool to teach kids more about Internet surfing". In June 2005, reviewer Gail Junion-Metz of the ''

School Library Journal ''School Library Journal'' (''SLJ'') is an American monthly magazine containing reviews and other articles for school librarians, media specialists, and public librarians who work with young people. Articles cover a wide variety of topics, with ...

'' praised Yahooligans! Games, writing that it is " e of the best spots to find kid-appropriate games that don't require downloads". In a September 1998 review of the website, John Hilvert and Linda Bruce of ''PC User'' (now named ''

TechLife ''TechLife'' (formerly ''PC User'') is an Australian general computer magazine, published monthly by Future Australia. The magazine's regular content consists of computer hardware and software reviews and previews, technology news and opinion a ...

'') wrote that "Yahooligans is one of the best specialized engines, particularly for homework answers." In July 2007, reviewer Holly Gunn of ''Teacher Librarian'' praised Yahoo! Kids for its helpful, comprehensible results but criticized it for having an interface filled with too many ads and that was "too busy and filled with too many diversions. Useful material is buried amidst entertainment".

Closure

Yahoo! Kids closed on April 30, 2013. In February 2013, Yahoo! CEO

Marissa Mayer Marissa Ann Mayer (; born May 30, 1975) is an American businesswoman and investor. She is an information technology executive, and co-founder of Sunshine Contacts. Mayer formerly served as the president and chief executive officer of Yahoo!, a p ...

told an investor conference that the company aimed to reduce their 70 products to 12, increasing their attention on mobile device applications. In an April 19, 2013, blog post announcing Yahoo! Kids' closure, Yahoo! Executive Vice president of Platforms Jay Rossiter wrote:

want to bring you experiences that inspire and entertain you every day. That means taking a hard look at all of our products to make sure they are still central to your daily habits. As part of that ongoing effort, today we are shutting down a few more products.

He said that Yahoo! would redirect those resources to newer products like e-mail and weather mobile applications. Rossiter wrote that Yahoo!'s "youngest users" could continue using the company's services. Children younger than 13 could create a Yahoo! account through Yahoo!'s Family Accounts program. Young users could also find age-appropriate movies through the "Family Movies" section of Yahoo! Movies.

References

;Notes ;Bibliography *

External links

Yahooligans!
on November 6, 2006 (from the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...

)
Yahoo! Kids
on April 26, 2013 (from the

)
Yahoo! Kids Japan
{{Yahoo! Inc.

Kids Kid, Kids, KIDS, and K.I.D.S. may refer to: Common meanings * Colloquial term for a child or other young person ** Also for a parent's offspring regardless of age * Engage in joking * Young goats * The goat meat of young goats * Kidskin, leath ...

Web directories Children's websites Products introduced in 1996 Internet properties established in 1996 Internet properties disestablished in 2013

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...