Before Google, you had to Ask Jeeves

It’s hard to believe now that these and others were the go-to sources for many internet users in the ‘90s, but indeed they were. The first search engine, one called Archie, dated all the way back to 1990, in fact.  “But it had limited functionalities; especially when compared to current search engines,” according to Stackscale, a technology company that specializes in cloud solutions.

Jump ahead to the mid ‘90 and a host of possibilities for search were available. AltaVista, whose name in Spanish means “high view,” was especially dominant in that period.

“Its popularity was down to the search engine’s design; it was the first fully searchable, full-text database on the web that had an accessible and easy-to-use interface,” says the MUO (Make Use Of) tech site.

And what about Ask Jeeves? It was a hoot, to be sure. As the Engadget tech site described it: “Ask Jeeves featured a well-dressed valet who supposedly fetched search results and was able to understand questions posed in everyday phrasing.”

So what happened to these one-time search stars? In a word, Google. By virtue of its powerful technology, Google “holds humanity’s knowledge in its search bar,” as Engadget put it.

These days, when we want to search for something online, we say we’ll “Google it.” Which somehow has a better ring than “AltaVista it.” Still, it’s worth noting that AltaVista once saw daily traffic of 80 million, according to MUO.

Not that all the other search engines went away immediately. AltaVista, for example, “underwent a series of acquisitions and format charges as several companies tried to make it profitable,” according to the FourWeekMBA site. Eventually, it was acquired by Yahoo, which “absorbed the technology behind the search engine into its own platform,” FourWeekMBA noted.

Now, if you go to AltaVista.com, you’ll be directed to a Yahoo.com search page. And if you want any information about what happened to AltaVista and other bygone search engines, you’ll have to Google it.