Tech Billboards Are All Over San Francisco. Can You Decode Them?

In 1999, a purple billboard stamped with the word Yahoo! in bold, neon lights appeared on Sixth Street in downtown San Francisco, easily spotted by those driving on Interstate 80 toward the Bay Bridge.

The sign, which heralded the arrival of the internet age, became as iconic to locals as the glowing welcome sign that greets out-of-towners on the Las Vegas Strip. And though the Yahoo! sign was taken down in 2019 after the internet company was sold to Verizon, the billboards lining that stretch of highway continued to be a bellwether for the tech industry. Each wave of technology was reflected in what was advertised, from dot-com dominance (Yahoo, eBay and Pets.com) to the sharing economy (Uber and Airbnb).

Today, a scan of the billboards shows that Silicon Valley has entered the artificial intelligence era — that is, if you can understand them. For those not in the tech industry, some of the signs might as well be written in cuneiform. It’s not just that they advertise companies you likely have not heard of, but their phrases and wording are also deep meme-speak.

Are you fluent in the language of today’s tech industry, or did you take the offramp around the time the Yahoo! billboard went extinct? Take this quiz to find out.