Yahoo’s iconic neon billboard in SF to be torn down

By Andrew Couts Published November 18, 2011

yahoo_marquee_billboard — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The iconic purple and yellow neon Yahoo billboard that has long been a staple of the San Francisco landscape is slated for destruction, reports SF Egoist. According to Jon Charles, Vice President and General Sales Manager for Clear Channel Outdoor in San Francisco, the billboard space will be available for lease starting in December, for $65,000 a month, or $80,000 a month for another neon sign.

Recommended Videos

Built in 1999, the retro-style, motel-themed billboard, which famously reads “Yahoo! A nice place to stay on the Internet,” has survived through the boom and bust of the Internet bubble in 2000, and made it through the tenures of four Yahoo CEOs. When it was first erected, Mark Zuckerberg was only 15-years-old.

The Yahoo billboard was created by Black Rocket advertising agency, who, at the time it went up, was creating billboards for a slew of dot-com companies, most of which went up along the 101 highway in Silicon Valley. Yahoo wanted to stand out, in more ways than one, according to Steve Stone, former co-creative director for Black Rocket. So the bright billboard found a home along Interstate 80, on the approach to the Bay Bridge — prime advertising real estate.

The San Francisco billboard also had similar-looking siblings, which were put up in Los Angeles, and in Times Square and the SOHO neighborhood of Manhattan.

If you want to try to help save the billboard, a Facebook page has been created for that goal. (It currently has 601 “likes.”) And if you’re interested in reading more about the history of the billboard (it is Friday, after all, it’s not like you’re going to get any real work done today), check out SF Egoist’s interview with Steve Stone and former Black Rocket media director Robert Boyce, here.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…

Computing

How to change margins in Google Docs

Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content -- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Computing

What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app

A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Computing

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs

A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.