Everybody remember this sign on Highway 101 in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, California, the beloved and famous Yahoo! billboard which was full of neon lights and oft-changing funny messages. It was like a neighbour to all inhabitants of this area.

It is hard to imagine anyone shedding tears over the loss of a billboard, but a lot of San Franciscans found their eyes watering up the day it has been taken down. Before being removed, many people fought against the loss of this icon of the dot.com era thanks to petitions and Facebook groups like “Save the Yahoo! billboard”.

The creators of this sign, Steve Stone and Bob Kerstetter (from the ad agency Black Rocket) thought it would be up only for one or two years and finally stayed for a decade. They both also remember the best messages on the sign, their favourite ones are “You look cute today” and the guy who proposed his girlfriend in the message space.

Apparently, Yahoo! did not want to pay the monthly sum (between US$ 65,000 and US$85,000) to keep this panel and prefer to focus on new and more innovative communication.

Many people say that the abandonment of this billboard testifies the decline of the company.

Many people do not really understand why Yahoo! didn’t continue its communication through this billboard because it had a lot of success and gave a good image of Yahoo! during this hard period for the company. Yahoo! had shown a negative image those last years. In 2008, the shareholders of Yahoo! neglected two major proposals: one on censorship, another one on Human Rights … In 2007, a mother of a Chinese journalist who has been sent to jail “thanks” to the information provided by Yahoo! China, filed a complaint against Yahoo!. This case poisoned the reputation of Yahoo! for many years. Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, was sentenced to ten years in prison in April 2005 for “revealing state secrets” to be transmitted abroad for official instructions to the Chinese media on the occasion of the fifteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. During his trial, it has been discovered that Chinese police had been traced back to him through the information provided by Yahoo! the e-mail account of Shi Tao, yet registered with Yahoo Hong Kong and not mainland China.

Then, in 2006, Reporters Without Borders tested at the time the various search engines present in China: Yahoo! won handily the censorship tests, beating Google, and Baidu …

Now, it seems as though San Francisco will lose something that most people forget soon after they pass by, but which will always have a place in their hearts.

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Dynamic Site Acceleration can increase your site’s performance by up to 500%.  This is accomplished by caching a site’s assets on a network of Pop servers that can be accessed repeatedly without data traveling to and from an origin server.  Tradition web servers hold your data in one region, making it slower for people that are located a significant distance from the origin.

Content Distribution via a CDN

Services like Amazon’s S3 speed up a sites performance by distributing content over an array of servers, but that data is all stored in one of six regions throughout the world.  The data may not use all of Amazon’s servers throughout the world unless the client pays for their CloudFront content delivery service.  This allows the data to be cached on additional servers, just like any other CDN.

Finding the Right CDN

While it may seem like the easy route to go, Amazon CloudFront is not necessarily the best option for content delivery.  Many other content delivery networks are compatible with Amazon S3 , and may be more efficient and less expensive.  Some factors to look for are the number of PoP nodes the service offers, how long they have been in the business, what their prices are, and how easy it is to set up with your Amazon S3 account.  Amazon is somewhat new to the world of dynamic site acceleration, but does have the advantage of owning their own storage solution.

Reap the benefits

Regardless of which dynamic site acceleration provider you choose, you will notice the benefits immediately.  Sites will load much faster, especially for visitors outside of your servers region.  Search engine results will improve due to Google’s method of ranking pages higher in the search results if they are faster.  And best of all the costs of operating your site and storing its files will decrease, allow for more money to go towards other business expenses.

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It sounds like a great idea on paper but suddenly you’ve found yourself stuck on a tourist coach without
air-conditioning & struggling to get up a hill as the tour guide rambles on with nonsensical stories that may or may not be true. It’s an all too common mistake, but why suffer any more? It’s time to get yourself out of the tourist trap and onto the open road as you become your own tour guide on the greatest driving roads in the world.

Los Angeles to San Francisco   

Considered one of the greatest drives in the world the roads on this route have been the location for countless movie scenes and now it’s your turn to join in the fun.

Driving along the California coast you’ll take in the Pacific Ocean, watching in awe as waves crash against the jagged shoreline before stopping at one of the many picturesque mountain ranges. Be sure to visit towns including Laguna Beach and Carmel by the Sea.

The real highlight of the trip is yet to come, as you enter San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge opens up before you welcoming you to one of America’s most famous landmarks.

Driving Time:
11 Hours Non Stop

Highlights:
Carmel by the Sea, Monterey Bay, Hearst Castle, Golden Gate Bridge

Watch out for:

Devils Slide, named due to erosion that previously made the road impassable.

Stay at:

The Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire (L.A) Marriot Union Square (San Francisco)

Jebel Hafeet Mountain Road – United Arab Emirates

English: Jebel Hafeet mountain in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There’s something slightly impure about having this road on our list, after all it was built specifically to be the ultimate driving road and only leads from a car park to a hotel (albeit a very luxurious one.)

However what the road lacks in purity it more than makes up for in terms of sheer driving fun, with 60 formula one inspired corners and a 4,000 foot ascent. Furthermore, it’s almost always empty
(after all it doesn’t really go anywhere) meaning you are assured of hours of fun without the risk of a single traffic jam.

Driving Time:

30 minutes Non Stop

Highlights:

60 Formula one inspired corners and an 18 hole golf course at the summit,

Watch out for:
Due to the 45c heat the surrounding Sand Dunes seem to move, be sure to keep your eyes on the road!

Cape Town – Port Elizabeth – South Africa

Wine enthusiasts will love this journey from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth as your drive past 65 different wineries all more tantalising than the other… but be warned, you may need to appoint a designated driver.

The route passes through South Africa’s famous Winelands and offers 748km of winding roads and stunning landscapes, well what else would you expect in a country as diverse and magnificent as South Africa?

Stop at the natural springs and Roman baths located at the warmwaterberg spa, it’s a great place to relax after hours of driving. The route also takes you past Klaasvoogds game reserve, an ideal location to spot wildebeest, leopard and zebra.

Driving Time:   

9.5 Hours Non Stop

Highlights:

Take a donkey trail over the Swatberg mountain range

Watch out for:

This is a long journey so be sure to split driving duties

Stay at:

Cape Grace Hotel (Cape Town) Protea Hotel Marine (Port Elizabeth)

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