Iconic Yahoo Billboard In SF Coming Down After 12 Years

SAN FRANCISCO (CNN Wire) -- Since 1999, it has greeted visitors to San Francisco while standing as a symbol of the Bay Area's status as a tech hub: A Yahoo billboard, retro-styled to look like a 1960s-era motel sign, with the tag line, "A nice place to stay on the Internet."

Now, it's finally coming down.

According to a report in the San Francisco Egotist, a sales manager for Clear Channel Outdoor in San Francisco has confirmed the billboard space will be available for new ads starting December 1.

Some bloggers are already speculating that a more of-the-moment Bay Area tech company, such as Facebook or Google, may take its place.

The neon Yahoo billboard near the on-ramp to eastbound Interstate-80 is a holdover from the dot-com boom of the late 1990s and inspired sister billboards in New York City and Los Angeles.

It has outlasted four Yahoo CEOs, including most recently Carol Bartz.

The billboard's space entertained passing motorists with such messages as, "FREE E-MAIL. ALL U CAN EAT BUFFET" and "YOU LOOK CUTE TODAY."

The inevitable Save the Yahoo! Billboard page has already sprung up on Facebook, where it has already amassed more than 800 likes.

(Copyright 2011 CBS San Francisco. All rights reserved.)