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Yahoo
Yahoo may not be breaking world records in mobile revenue just yet, but it did enter the record books for one thing on Monday: yodeling.
For the company’s 20th birthday, CEO Marissa Mayer assembled more than 3,400 employees outside of the company’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., to perform Yahoo’s signature sound byte. Previously, the record for most people simultaneously yodeling was 1,700.
The act capped off a day of Yahoo celebrations. When the Nasdaq opened on Monday, the bell yodeled instead of rang — the first modification of the bell in the stock exchange’s history. The company is one of the most iconic in Silicon Valley history, but it has been in turnaround mode after several years of flagging revenue.
The sound of 3,400 amateur yodelers isn’t the most pleasant sounding in the world. According to the book “Yodel-Ay-Ee-Oooo,” by Bart Plantenga, the distinctive sound of Swiss yodeling does not make use of the “eee” sound people so often think of when it comes to yodeling.
“And, to the surprise of most neophytes, it has a decided melancholy feeling — slow, mournful, forlorn,” Plantenga wrote.
Well, according to that book, Yahoo’s yodeling was spot on.
