As search engines in 2025 shift from providing links to (AI) answers — and all the angst that is causing web publishers — I thought I'd take a look at what search engines were like in 1998...one year before Google became popular. At that time search was seen as just one part of the portal experience. But little did AltaVista know, it wouldn't be the center of attention on @dannysullivan's Search Engine Watch for much longer. https://cybercultural.com/p/search-1998/#InternetHistory #searchengines
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Came across this video today of how search worked in Internet Explorer 4 in 1998; it was a big ol' button that you pressed and it opened up in a frame on the left. You can see AltaVista in action here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaHR2mbnIjA (via Computer Chronicles, link on the YouTube page)
@ricmac oh I remember this UI. That was how I was introduced to the internet in the 90s
@ricmac
All in c:\ie4demo\ I notice... I assume there was no access to Internet in the studio.. 🤣
All in c:\ie4demo\ I notice... I assume there was no access to Internet in the studio.. 🤣
@ricmac Totally worth the screen real estate on my 800x600 pixel 15" SVGA monitor 😁
@ricmac Back then all of the internet fitted on his C:\ drive :)
Dear god, just realised my own website was 2 years old at that time.
@zwartekat I saw that, but I can’t blame him for not wanting to surf the web live on tv in 1998. Things were a bit slower back then :)
@ricmac @dannysullivan I miss altavista 😢
@ricmac @dannysullivan
The May 11, 1998 issue of my newsletter Tasty Bits from the Technology Front featured the first review in English of Google's search engine (there was one earlier article in Russian):
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