But instead of finishing their theses, the increasingly bored classmates were spending more and more time compiling a list of interesting electronic sites sites with information about computers, art, movies, sports, NASA and The Simpsons that are on the Internet.

Now that irreverent directory dubbed Yahoo for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle is becoming what may be one of the first big success stories in a growing crowd of Internet entrepreneurs.

The Yahoo guide to the Internet has grown to 38,000 sites and is adding 150 a week. An estimated 150,000 people peek into Yahoo each day to find their way around the World Wide Web, which is the part of the Internet with graphics and sound. Sequoia Capital of California reportedly is providing around $1 million in venture capital to start. Yahoo is hiring a new Harvard grad as its marketing expert. And its founders, now on indefinite leaves from Stanford University, are figuring out how to start selling ads.

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Filo, 29, and Yang, 26 identified as the chief Yahoos on their business cards have become two of the more prominent Internet entrepreneurs to emerge in the past year as the World Wide Web has exploded in popularity.

The various entrepreneurs are hoping to transform what often starts out as a part-time hobby and a fascination with the Internet into full-time careers. They are hoping to attract advertising revenue with a host of services, including, in addition to Yahoo, a collection of reviews of Internet sites called Point, a listing of concert tours called Wilma, a lifestyle magazine called Word and an alternative music magazine called Addicted to Noise.

The market for these content services is growing exponentially, said John Nardone, director of consumer products at Modem Media, an agency in Norwalk, Conn., that is helping companies such as AT&T, Adolph Coors, MasterCard and J.C. Penney advertise on the Web. The early people in have a big advantage. It will be hard for someone to one up Yahoo.

Services like Yahoo will compete for advertisers with such giant publishing houses as Time Warner Inc., which is selling ads linked to electronic versions of magazines including Time and Entertainment Weekly, and Conde Nast, as well as Hotwired, which is an offshoot of Wired magazine, Playboy, and Netscape Communications, which develops computer software.

But that doesn’t mean the entrepreneurs don’t have standards.

We are trying to avoid obnoxious advertising as much as possible, Yang said of Yahoo’s goals.

IUMA, which stands for Internet Underground Music Archive and which lists hundreds of rock bands that are seeking work, is avoiding alcohol and cigarette advertising.

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We’re really being kind of picky about advertisers, said Jeffrey Patterson, 21, who co-founded IUMA with a classmate. Both of them are on leave from the University of California at Santa Cruz. We were both music lovers and computer geeks at the same time, he said, adding that Silicon Graphics and Intel have become IUMA sponsors by providing computer equipment, just as Netscape has provided equipment to Yahoo.

For investors like Sequoia Capital, which also was among the initial funders of such successful giants as Apple Computer Inc. and Sisco Systems, the Internet entrepreneurs have huge potential.

David and Jerry aren’t unusual, Michael Moritz, general partner at Sequoia Capital, said of Yahoo’s founders. They are typical of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who developed something they themselves wanted. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak didn’t start Apple Computer to make huge amounts of money, either.

Ad agencies are eager to get to know some of the more promising Internet entrepreneurs.

A site like Yahoo gets a huge amount of traffic, said David Carlick, general manager of Poppe.Com, the Internet production arm of BJK&E, whose ad agencies include the giant Bozell and who hopes to sign a deal with Yahoo to help attract ads.

Chris McBride, 23, was working for a talent agency in Los Angeles after graduating from American University in Washington, D.C., with majors in political science and international studies last year, but before long he also got hooked on the Web.

Starting this week, he switched full time to caring for his Web site, called Wilma, for Worldwide Internet Live Music Archive, which lists more than 100 concert tours, as well as various concert clubs and arenas. Record companies like Sony and Atlantic are helping him update the list and he is charging $3,000 to $5,000 a month to run ads.

If we say, ‘Check out this company, they have a good product,’ we hope our users will trust us enough to check it out, McBride said.

Thomas Livaccari, 30, a former CompuServe employee, has gotten funding from Icon Netwhich provides Internet services to companiesto start up Word, a lifestyle magazine for people 18 to 34. Livaccari, the publisher, who works out of midtown Manhattan, said the topics range from personal finance and travel to sex and technology. Sponsors include Zima, Sun Microsystems and Netscape Communications. A major credit-card company may soon sign on. The charge to advertisers:$12,000 for 12 weeks.

It’s risky because no one really knows where this is going, it’s uncharted territory, said Livaccari, who expects to launch Word on June 1. But so far, so good.

Michael Goldberg, 41, a former editor and writer at Rolling Stone magazine, is charging $1,000 a month to advertise with Addicted to Noise, a music magazine on the Internet whose logo is a pair of crossed syringes behind the name. He has attracted Warner Bros. Records, Reprise, Capital, Sony and Philips Interactive as advertisers. He also has attracted Frank Kozik, a noted music poster artist, to do graphics, and writer Dave Marsh to do a column.

I have been obsessed with rock n’ roll since I was 11 years old, Goldberg said.

Not all of the entrepreneurs are starting out small.

Chris Kitze, 36, didn’t waste much time last year after he sold Aris Multimedia Entertainment, a CD-ROM operation he had started, for more than $1 million. He is using some of that money, along with $5 million he expects to raise, to start up a compendium of critiques called Point, which he likens to a Zagat guide to the Internet. He expects the current 500 reviewsranging from the Popular Mechanics site to a site involving a video camera pointed at a coffee machineto grow to more than 5,000 by October. Advertisers include Southwest Airlines.

This could be a $10 million business next year, said Kitze, who is moving to New York to be closer to Madison Avenue. The big question is will the advertisers advertise.

^Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service=

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