Search & Advertising

Search Engines Preceding Google​

2024 marks the 30th anniversary of Digital Advertising. Leading up to Google's release, there were many market participants, very similar to the Streaming Wars we see today. And while they aimed to solve a problem that was more critical to web adoption at large, they each found unique ways to innovate when they'd be introduced to the market.

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• Archie (1990): Launched in 1990, was the pioneering search tool designed to index FTP archives, making it easier for people to find specific files. It did not measure users in the modern sense but was widely used among the limited internet users of its time. Its decline came as the web evolved beyond FTP directories, with web-based engines like Yahoo! and AltaVista offering more comprehensive indexing.​

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• Veronica (1992): "Very Easy Rodent-Oriented Net-wide Index to Computerized Archives," was a key player in the Gopher ecosystem, providing a search service for plain text documents in Gopher servers. Its usage peaked with the Gopher protocol, but as the World Wide Web grew, Veronica usage declined, with web search engines becoming more dominant.

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• Excite (1993): Established in 1993, introduced a web portal concept combining search with an array of services like email. At its peak, Excite was one of the most recognized names in search but was overshadowed as Google's superior search algorithms and simplicity won users over in the late 1990s and early 2000s.​

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The World's First Display Banner Ad: Sold by Hotwire (now know as Wired.com) to ATT

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• Yahoo! Directory (1994): When introduced was known for categorizing websites hierarchically, which was a significant step from the rudimentary search tools prior. Yahoo! became a leading portal but struggled to transition to the search-focused internet landscape, eventually ceding ground to Google's search-focused approach.

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• Lycos (1994): A true search engine by definition and introduced relevance retrieval, which improved the accuracy of search results. It had millions of users at its height but was surpassed by Google and others who offered faster and more accurate search capabilities.

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• AltaVista (1995): Revolutionary in indexing a large number of websites and returning fast searches. It was a top search engine until Google's PageRank algorithm, which provided more relevant search results, led to AltaVista's decline.

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• Inktomi (1996): Less known, Inktomi was significant for its search engine technology and pioneering paid inclusion in search results. Its technology powered other search engines but was eventually outcompeted by Google's ad-based revenue model and was acquired by Yahoo! in 2002.

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• Ask Jeeves (1996): Fully rolled out on in June 1997, Ask Jeeves offered a natural language query approach, which made it unique. However, it couldn't keep up with Google's simplicity and effectiveness, leading to a rebranding and a decline in user base.

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• GoTo.com (1997): Created in 1997, was a trailblazer for pay-per-click advertising, laying the groundwork for modern search advertising. Despite its innovative model, it was ultimately overshadowed by Google AdWords, which offered a more sophisticated and scalable advertising platform. After once looking to partner together Google ultimately was sued after creating a very similar advertising model to what GoTo had once introduced to the web.

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• MSN Search (1998): MSN was aimed to compete with established search engines by offering indexed search results. Although it had a significant user base due to Microsoft's leverage, it couldn't surpass Google's search capabilities and was rebranded as Bing in an attempt to reclaim market share.

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• Google (1998): Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and it quickly distinguished itself from other search engines with two key innovations. The first was its PageRank algorithm, which ranked web pages based on the number and quality of links to them, providing more relevant results. The second was its clean and user-friendly homepage that contrasted sharply with the cluttered pages of other search engines at the time, focusing users' attention on search and delivering a faster, more efficient searching experience. These innovations significantly improved how users interacted with the web and contributed to Google becoming the leading search engine.