It’s 2002, and Yahoo Inc. is at the top of its game — millions of searches processed each day, its email client as popular as ever and Hotmail being its only real competition. It was the only real alternative to setting your homepage to something that wasn’t AOL.com and it had everything you needed, including Yahoo GeoCities, which, let’s be honest, was we all had.

Unfortunately, however, all good things must come to an end. With the rise of Google, social networks and a plethora of portal site alternatives, Yahoo has been pushed out of the spotlight in recent years. Several attempts were made to breathe some life back into the Internet giant, but to no avail. Carol Bartz, the very outspoken Yahoo CEO was ousted over the phone last month as her efforts to rejuvenate Yahoo Inc. hadn’t met shareholders expectations.

Yahoo’s stock once traded at $118 a share, but is now at $16; why does it even bother keeping its servers up? More recently, Yahoo has sought financing, making a lucrative offer to purchase preferred stock in Yahoo Inc., which has caught the eyes of both Microsoft and Google. Microsoft, who has made search deals with Yahoo and attempted to purchase Yahoo in 2008, wants to recoup its investment.

Google has also taken an interest in this investment opportunity for reasons that have not been disclosed officially. Why would these giants even bother with Yahoo, why wouldn’t they let Yahoo fizzle out? The competition between them all was once as fierce as a certain Cy-Hawk rivalry, but has become now almost nonexistent.

They’re interested because Yahoo has one of the largest user bases in the world. Think about that for a second, and the opportunity that fact presents to any external parties. Think of how many people have Yahoo email accounts, or browse the Yahoo homepage at work, or use Yahoo Finance.

How about the people with Yahoo fantasy sports teams, the people on Yahoo games playing the countless games of Canasta, or the millions of photos on Flickr with its broad userbase? Yahoo is probably one of the most valuable Internet properties out there, but gets overlooked because of its association with the year 1998. It’s not the hot and upcoming firm that it once was, that’s for sure, but it’s still something of value.

Google and Microsoft claim they want to make the investments, so they can have some input as to the general direction of Yahoo and its brands. And that’s where the question remains, where will Yahoo go? Why would it suddenly become popular again? The Internet takes popular trends and makes them as unpopular just as quickly. Take digg.com for example, one of the hottest news sites on the net once, now a sad remnant of what used to be.

And that’s just how these things work. Reddit.com, I’m looking at you to cherish this time of popularity, as you could become the next Yahoo. And that’s just it. Yahoo Inc. is just another thing of the past clinging to some scraps to maintain its relevance. I just hope whatever comes of it, it doesn’t become a joke like MySpace. Yahoo.com played a large part in Internet history, and that’s something I don’t want to see destroyed.

In some ways, I almost want to see Yahoo fail, just so it can go into the past where it belongs. Whatever Google and Microsoft do, I hope it preserves the name and the history attached to Yahoo. I for one know that I’ll never forget the phrase: Do you Yahoo?