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Altavista: The rise and fall of the biggest pre-Google search engine

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Re: Altavista: The rise and fall of the biggest pre-Google search engine

#2

Post by macintux »

I recall a dinner party where a few people were discussing the web, probably 1994. Essentially we all agreed the web was unusable because it was too hard to find what you were looking for; the best ideas we had for solving that problem were pretty bad.

Google changed the world. What used to be buried on the 3rd or 4th page of Altavista results, if it appeared at all, was suddenly front and center. (Yahoo’s directory was rarely useful at all.)

I’m not a fan of Google today, but for years I would tell everyone I knew about it.

(Edit: fixed the year.)

Re: Altavista: The rise and fall of the biggest pre-Google search engine

#6

Post by woliveirajr »

Altavista was a great showcase on how powerfull servers and internet were at that era: before it, internet was considered something that needed Yellow Pages to be viable. With altavista the content gained relevance over the location, suddenly you didn't need to know where to find it, knowing what you wanted was enought.

Google was a big step afterwards, showing that even when you know what you want, you might not express it correctly, so having some ranking on results was helpful.

Re: Altavista: The rise and fall of the biggest pre-Google search engine

#7

Post by wil421 »

macintux wrote: post #2

I recall a dinner party where a few people were discussing the web, probably 1994. Essentially we all agreed the web was unusable because it was too hard to find what you were looking for; the best ideas we had for solving that problem were pretty bad. Google changed the world. What used to be buried on the 3rd or 4th page of Altavista results, if it appeared at all, was suddenly front and center. (Yahoo’s directory…

Do you think Google is the new AOL? Way back AOL had their homepage where you saw an AOL recommended part of the web. You still had access to the web but for most first time users it was easier to use than a web browser alone.

I say this because I’ve been wondering if we now have a Google snapshot of the web instead of AOLs homepage. Don’t get me wrong search is much better than a more or less static homepage of topics.

Are we all in a Google search bubble?

Re: Altavista: The rise and fall of the biggest pre-Google search engine

#8

Post by agumonkey »

macintux wrote: post #2

I recall a dinner party where a few people were discussing the web, probably 1994. Essentially we all agreed the web was unusable because it was too hard to find what you were looking for; the best ideas we had for solving that problem were pretty bad. Google changed the world. What used to be buried on the 3rd or 4th page of Altavista results, if it appeared at all, was suddenly front and center. (Yahoo’s directory…

Google is interesting because it was so obviously useful that it was a barely conscious decision. Just like following a river.

Gradually they became invasive and overwhelming.. to the point that I have a slight anxiety regarding anything Google in the news.

Re: Altavista: The rise and fall of the biggest pre-Google search engine

#9

Post by siggen »

If I remember correctly, Altavista produced better results than Google back then, for me at least. However, Altavista took seconds to load the first page (on 56k) whereas Google's first page loaded almost immediately.

I honestly didn't expect Google to have survived the dot-com bust back then. This was before they figured out online adword auctions.

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