The mention of August 9th, 1995 still sends shivers down the spine of any Grateful Dead fan. Just eight days after his 53rd birthday, Jerry Garcia passed away at a rehabilitation clinic. His loss looms large in the hearts of many, though apparently Garcia’s notability helped to fuel the phenomenon of Internet news.
In a new profile of Yahoo!, the New York Times spoke with some of the company’s top employees to reflect on the rise and decline of the Internet giant. One such employee, Ms. Srinija Srinivasan, discussed the beginning of Yahoo! as a news entity.
Human judgment — what Mr. Yang referred to as “the voice of Yahoo” — remained a core value of the company. When the Grateful Dead musician Jerry Garcia died in August 1995, Yahoo searches on him spiked immediately. The surfers put a Garcia link on the home page. “That was the birth of Yahoo News,” Ms. Srinivasan said. Today, it remains one of the most popular online news portals.
Regardless of anything, we still miss you Jerry.