Search Engines Through the Years
For many of us, the 90’s was
the era when we first started using the Internet. Using the Internet gave us an
opportunity to have access to a world of information from our fingertips. That
information could include details on
data recovery,
raid data
recovery as well as
hard
drive recovery.
However, finding information through search engines was not as easy as it is
today.
For most of the early days of the Internet, sites were submitted to directories,
which is where many users would go for information. Good directories such
Yahoo,
Alta Vista,
Excite and
Lycos began appearing in the
early to mid 90’s as places to go to find information. Generally, the
information was divided into many categories for users. This method of filing
had pluses and minuses. For example, to find information on companies or
businesses that only had one product line, it was fairly easy to go to the
correct category and retrieve the info. However, when you were looking for a
website that was harder to categorize, it was much more of a challenge, and
demanded a bit of searching.
Starting in the later portion of the 90’s newer search engines began to pop up.
These search engines began to incorporate search functionality into their
websites. This made retrieval of data much easier. During those years, search
sites such as Ask Jeeves,
MSN Search,
Google and
Northern Light began
operation, and the face of searching for information changed forever.
However, with the advent of
new technology
in the search engines, the websites needed to continue to change to incorporate
the technology. The biggest change was the ability to give searchers, not only
links to the sites they were looking for, but also bits of information that is
contained on the page they are searching. This one change saved searchers
countless time by not having to click on web links that were not pertinent.
The advances in technology did come with a cost. Many of the
original search engines either ceased operation or merged with other search
engines. The search engine websites that went away include Excite (which is part
of Ask Jeeves), Infoseek (now part of go.com), and Inktomi (which was purchased
by Yahoo).
One example of the changes in the search engine field was that of
Northern Light.
In 1997, the search engine was launched, utilizing the latest technology for
seeking information. In its time, Northern Light was one of the best search
engines; however, it had problems competing with all of the other search
engines. In 2002, the company gave up on trying to gain market share in this
competitive market, and stopped offering their technology to Internet users.
Instead, the company decided to direct their attention at having Northern Light
be an internal search engine. Today, it is thriving in that market.
The search engine
field now is dominated by Google, with additional market share being held by
Yahoo and MSN. But, as history shows us, what is true today, may be different in
the future, and the same can be said about search engines.
For more information on search engine technology and history, visit the
following links:
Google Search Technology – This website talks about the changes in Google’s
use of technology in their search engine.
Search History –
Resourceful site with many links about search engine history and the Internet.
Future of Search Engine Technology – This article looks ahead to what search
engine technology will be like in the near future.
Future of Search Engines – This article looks at advances in search engines
and what can be expected in the future.
Search
Engine Scene in 2015 – An article that discusses the trends in search
engines and projects what they will look like in 2015.
Search
Engine (Wikipedia) – The Wikipedia entry discussing search engines.
List of Search Engines – A
comprehensive list of the 20 top search engines.
Top Alternative Search Engines – A list of 100 alternatives to the major
search engines.
Search engines have evolved tremendously over the past several years, and have
become an important part of our online experience. With our reliance on search
engines, it is anticipated that we will continue to use them in the future.
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