Began as a research project in January 1996 by Larry Page, a Ph.D. student at Stanford.[1] Larry was soon joined in his research project by Sergey Brin a fellow Stanford Ph.D. student and close friend. Larry Page hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better results than existing techniques (existing search engines at the time essentially ranked results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page).[2] It was originally nicknamed, "BackRub", because the system checked backlinks to estimate a site's importance.[3] A small search engine called RankDex was already exploring a similar strategy.[4]
Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. Originally the search engine used the Stanford website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The name Google is a play on the term googol, which is the large number 10100. The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. They formally incorporated their company, Google Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California.
In March 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, home to a number of other noted Silicon Valley technology startups. Google received a big break in 1999 when one of the most popular search engines, AltaVista, relaunched itself as a user web entry point, or portal. This unexpected change alienated part of AltaVista's user base. Google quickly outgrew its University Avenue home. The company settled into a complex of buildings, called the Googleplex in Mountain View in 1999. Silicon Graphics leased these buildings to Google.
The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users. They were attracted to its simple, uncluttered, clean design — a competitive advantage to attract users who did not wish to enter searches on web pages filled with visual distractions. This appearance, while imitating the early AltaVista, had behind it Google's unique search capabilities. In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with the search keyword to produce enhanced search results for the user. This strategy was important for increasing advertising revenue, which is based upon the number of "hits" users make upon ads. The ads were text-based in order to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed. It also only cost a very small amount per click to the websites that advertised this way. This model of selling keyword advertising was originally pioneered by Goto.com (later renamed Overture, then Yahoo! Search Marketing).[5] While many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.
U.S. Patent 6,285,999 describing Google's ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on September 4, 2001. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.
Google's declared code of conduct is, "Don't Be Evil", a phrase which they went so far as to include in their prospectus (aka "red herring" or "S-1") for their IPO, noting, "We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served — as shareholders and in all other ways — by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains."
The Google site often includes humorous features such as cartoon modifications of the Google logo to recognize special occasions and anniversaries.[6] Known as "Google Doodles", most have been drawn by Google's international webmaster, Dennis Hwang.[7] Not only may decorative drawings be attached to the logo, but the font design may also mimic a fictional or humorous language such as Star Trek Klingon and Leet.[8] The logo is also notorious among web users for April Fool's Day tie-ins and jokes about the company.
Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. Originally the search engine used the Stanford website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The name Google is a play on the term googol, which is the large number 10100. The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. They formally incorporated their company, Google Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California.
In March 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto, home to a number of other noted Silicon Valley technology startups. Google received a big break in 1999 when one of the most popular search engines, AltaVista, relaunched itself as a user web entry point, or portal. This unexpected change alienated part of AltaVista's user base. Google quickly outgrew its University Avenue home. The company settled into a complex of buildings, called the Googleplex in Mountain View in 1999. Silicon Graphics leased these buildings to Google.
The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users. They were attracted to its simple, uncluttered, clean design — a competitive advantage to attract users who did not wish to enter searches on web pages filled with visual distractions. This appearance, while imitating the early AltaVista, had behind it Google's unique search capabilities. In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with the search keyword to produce enhanced search results for the user. This strategy was important for increasing advertising revenue, which is based upon the number of "hits" users make upon ads. The ads were text-based in order to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed. It also only cost a very small amount per click to the websites that advertised this way. This model of selling keyword advertising was originally pioneered by Goto.com (later renamed Overture, then Yahoo! Search Marketing).[5] While many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.
U.S. Patent 6,285,999 describing Google's ranking mechanism (PageRank) was granted on September 4, 2001. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.
Google's declared code of conduct is, "Don't Be Evil", a phrase which they went so far as to include in their prospectus (aka "red herring" or "S-1") for their IPO, noting, "We believe strongly that in the long term, we will be better served — as shareholders and in all other ways — by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains."
The Google site often includes humorous features such as cartoon modifications of the Google logo to recognize special occasions and anniversaries.[6] Known as "Google Doodles", most have been drawn by Google's international webmaster, Dennis Hwang.[7] Not only may decorative drawings be attached to the logo, but the font design may also mimic a fictional or humorous language such as Star Trek Klingon and Leet.[8] The logo is also notorious among web users for April Fool's Day tie-ins and jokes about the company.
History of Altavista
May 2000. AltaVista launched a new "high-end" search engine called 'Raging Search' utilising the same technology and web index as AltaVista's primary engine. It will rely on selling links to businesses rather than banner advertisements.
February 2000. Introduced new multimedia features, with separate search centers for MP3/audio, images and video search, giving access to an index of over 30 million documents, including over 1 million MP3 files.
End-1999. AltaVista replaced by Inktomi in powering MSN Search. AltaVista had taken over from Inktomi in this same role earlier in 1999. MSN Search stills displays a link to AltaVista search at the bottom of its results' pages.
October 1999. Launched AltaVista Shopping.com.Switched to Open Directory and dropped Looksmart directory.Agreement with RemarQ to provide Usenet search results, replacing its own Usenet directory. Introduced results from its branded version of Ask Jeeves (database of over 7 million questions ) into its results display. Also introduced Photo search and a filtering option.
October 25, 1999. Launch of redesigned site, incorporating new logo and site features including:- new directory information source (Open Directory); news database; results clustering; new relevancy ranking algorithm; company fact sheets where available.
July 1999. Majority share (82%) in AltaVista purchased by Internet investment company, CMGI, INC. for $2.3b in stock. Compaq retains an 18% share.Introduced My AltaVista personalization feature, and AltaVista Finance, which offers stock quotes and information, market information, news from CBS MarketWatch, Reuters, PR Newswire, etc.Dropped its paid-for Relevant Paid Placement option. Dropped its Refine feature.
15 April 1999. Announced addition of AltaVista Relevant Paid Placement - returns two paid placements above search index results which are marked as Paid Placements. Keywords are auctioned every two weeks.
March 1999. German version of site launched. Based in Munich.
February 1999. Purchased Zip2.Corp for $200m. Also took a 10% stake in online video and image search company Virage, Inc. Integrated Virage's search tools into AltaVista for video and image searching. AltaVista set up as a separate, publicly traded company.Partnership with MSN replacing Inktomi as MSN's search service. To begin powering MSN in the third quarter of 1999.
October 1998. Natural language searching introduced.Branded version of the Ask Jeeves answer service (Ask AltaVista) introduced and accessed via the heading 'AltaVista knows the answers to these questions'. Ask Jeeves editorial team have prepared some 7 million questions which link to sites providing the answers.Also introduced photo search service, and Family Filter option. Announced that Microsoft's Hotmail was to take over from iName as AltaVista's free e-mail service.
Autumn 1998. Automatic phrase searching introduced. Is based on a collection of several million phrases.AltaVista Discovery replaced AltaVista Personal Search.
June 1998. Digital acquired by Compaq in a process which began in January, thereby also acquiring AltaVista search engine. Total cost estimated to be nearly $9m.
June 1998. Content channels introduced in, coinciding with redesigned interface.
Formed an alliance early in 1998 with Looksmart Directory service (founded October 1996 and listing over 400,000 sites categorized into over 16,000 subjects) - co-branded version of LookSmart directory called AltaVista Categories accessed via Explore by Subject (launched January 1998).
December 1997. People Search and Business Search launched.
December 1st, 1997. First mirror site (www.altavista.telia.com) launched.
July 1997. Search by Language introduced.
June 1996. Partnered with Yahoo!. Link severed July 1998 (will continue to be listed at the bottom of Yahoo!’s results’ pages).
Site made public December 15th, 1995.
AltaVista harvesting software 'Scooter' first 'crawled' on July 4th, 1995.
Project started Spring 1995 by Louis Monier.
February 2000. Introduced new multimedia features, with separate search centers for MP3/audio, images and video search, giving access to an index of over 30 million documents, including over 1 million MP3 files.
End-1999. AltaVista replaced by Inktomi in powering MSN Search. AltaVista had taken over from Inktomi in this same role earlier in 1999. MSN Search stills displays a link to AltaVista search at the bottom of its results' pages.
October 1999. Launched AltaVista Shopping.com.Switched to Open Directory and dropped Looksmart directory.Agreement with RemarQ to provide Usenet search results, replacing its own Usenet directory. Introduced results from its branded version of Ask Jeeves (database of over 7 million questions ) into its results display. Also introduced Photo search and a filtering option.
October 25, 1999. Launch of redesigned site, incorporating new logo and site features including:- new directory information source (Open Directory); news database; results clustering; new relevancy ranking algorithm; company fact sheets where available.
July 1999. Majority share (82%) in AltaVista purchased by Internet investment company, CMGI, INC. for $2.3b in stock. Compaq retains an 18% share.Introduced My AltaVista personalization feature, and AltaVista Finance, which offers stock quotes and information, market information, news from CBS MarketWatch, Reuters, PR Newswire, etc.Dropped its paid-for Relevant Paid Placement option. Dropped its Refine feature.
15 April 1999. Announced addition of AltaVista Relevant Paid Placement - returns two paid placements above search index results which are marked as Paid Placements. Keywords are auctioned every two weeks.
March 1999. German version of site launched. Based in Munich.
February 1999. Purchased Zip2.Corp for $200m. Also took a 10% stake in online video and image search company Virage, Inc. Integrated Virage's search tools into AltaVista for video and image searching. AltaVista set up as a separate, publicly traded company.Partnership with MSN replacing Inktomi as MSN's search service. To begin powering MSN in the third quarter of 1999.
October 1998. Natural language searching introduced.Branded version of the Ask Jeeves answer service (Ask AltaVista) introduced and accessed via the heading 'AltaVista knows the answers to these questions'. Ask Jeeves editorial team have prepared some 7 million questions which link to sites providing the answers.Also introduced photo search service, and Family Filter option. Announced that Microsoft's Hotmail was to take over from iName as AltaVista's free e-mail service.
Autumn 1998. Automatic phrase searching introduced. Is based on a collection of several million phrases.AltaVista Discovery replaced AltaVista Personal Search.
June 1998. Digital acquired by Compaq in a process which began in January, thereby also acquiring AltaVista search engine. Total cost estimated to be nearly $9m.
June 1998. Content channels introduced in, coinciding with redesigned interface.
Formed an alliance early in 1998 with Looksmart Directory service (founded October 1996 and listing over 400,000 sites categorized into over 16,000 subjects) - co-branded version of LookSmart directory called AltaVista Categories accessed via Explore by Subject (launched January 1998).
December 1997. People Search and Business Search launched.
December 1st, 1997. First mirror site (www.altavista.telia.com) launched.
July 1997. Search by Language introduced.
June 1996. Partnered with Yahoo!. Link severed July 1998 (will continue to be listed at the bottom of Yahoo!’s results’ pages).
Site made public December 15th, 1995.
AltaVista harvesting software 'Scooter' first 'crawled' on July 4th, 1995.
Project started Spring 1995 by Louis Monier.
History of Excite
November 1999. Added LookSmart content (with over 1.2m records) to its directory.
August 1999. Announced new search engine to create 250m page index. Introduced LookSmart-powered directory listings.
June 1999. Partnership to produce Netscape Netcenter ending.
May 1999. Merger with @Home Network completed. New company - Excite@Home.
January 1999. Announcement of merger with @Home Network, a cable TV company, in a $6.7b stock swap.
August 1998. New communities service saw bets launch. Made available to all web users in September.
Summer 1998. Reorganized results page.
October 1997. Added new ‘Business and Investing Channel’ in conjunction with Intuit (channel also available from within Quicken website and WebCrawler).
November 1996. Acquired WebCrawler.
July 1996. Purchased Magellan.
March 1996. Acquired new look with the introduction of Excite 2.0. Version 3.0 appeared in 1997.
October 1995. Excite search service launched.
1994. Excite Inc. founded.
Late-1993. Originally called Architext, developed by five Stanford university graduates (the second engine so developed by Stanford students).
August 1999. Announced new search engine to create 250m page index. Introduced LookSmart-powered directory listings.
June 1999. Partnership to produce Netscape Netcenter ending.
May 1999. Merger with @Home Network completed. New company - Excite@Home.
January 1999. Announcement of merger with @Home Network, a cable TV company, in a $6.7b stock swap.
August 1998. New communities service saw bets launch. Made available to all web users in September.
Summer 1998. Reorganized results page.
October 1997. Added new ‘Business and Investing Channel’ in conjunction with Intuit (channel also available from within Quicken website and WebCrawler).
November 1996. Acquired WebCrawler.
July 1996. Purchased Magellan.
March 1996. Acquired new look with the introduction of Excite 2.0. Version 3.0 appeared in 1997.
October 1995. Excite search service launched.
1994. Excite Inc. founded.
Late-1993. Originally called Architext, developed by five Stanford university graduates (the second engine so developed by Stanford students).
History of Hotbot
April 1999. Implemented its own version of the Open Directory.
February 1999. Began serving results directly from Direct Hit. Previously, Direct Hit results were offered as an option. Direct Hit ranks pages by the number of users who follow links to those pages.
January 1999. Truncation now available.
November 1998. Launched free e-mail and homepage services in partnership with Lycos’ WhoWhere division.October. 1998. Agreement by Lycos to purchase Wired Digital (owner of HotBot).September 1998. Agreement with Netscape to be one of its ‘Distinguished ‘ providers.
September 1998. Personal Page Limit, truncation and language limit introduced.August 1998. Partnership with ‘Direct Hit’.
May 1998. Redesigned interface, introducing branded version of LookSmart, and placing directory access to the right of the main search options.
May 1996. HotBot launched by Wired Ventures.
October 1992. Wired Ventures founded
February 1999. Began serving results directly from Direct Hit. Previously, Direct Hit results were offered as an option. Direct Hit ranks pages by the number of users who follow links to those pages.
January 1999. Truncation now available.
November 1998. Launched free e-mail and homepage services in partnership with Lycos’ WhoWhere division.October. 1998. Agreement by Lycos to purchase Wired Digital (owner of HotBot).September 1998. Agreement with Netscape to be one of its ‘Distinguished ‘ providers.
September 1998. Personal Page Limit, truncation and language limit introduced.August 1998. Partnership with ‘Direct Hit’.
May 1998. Redesigned interface, introducing branded version of LookSmart, and placing directory access to the right of the main search options.
May 1996. HotBot launched by Wired Ventures.
October 1992. Wired Ventures founded
History of Yahoo
In January 1994, Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo created a website named "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web". Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web was a directory of other web sites, organized in a hierchary, as opposed to a searchable index of pages.
In April 1994, "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" was renamed "Yahoo!". "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle" is a backronym for this name, but Filo and Yang insist they selected the name because they liked the word's general definition, as in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth."[1]
By the end of 1994, Yahoo! had already received one million hits. Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on 2 March 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated.[2] On 12 April 1996, Yahoo! had its initial public offering, raising $33.8 million dollars, by selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.
"Yahoo" had already been trademarked for barbecue sauce, knives (by EBSCO Industries) and human propelled watercraft (by Old Town Canoe Co.). Therefore, in order to get the trademark, Yang and Filo added the exclamation mark to the name.[3] However, the exclamation mark is often incorrectly omitted when referring to Yahoo!
In April 1994, "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" was renamed "Yahoo!". "Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle" is a backronym for this name, but Filo and Yang insist they selected the name because they liked the word's general definition, as in Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: "rude, unsophisticated, uncouth."[1]
By the end of 1994, Yahoo! had already received one million hits. Yang and Filo realized their website had massive business potential, and on 2 March 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated.[2] On 12 April 1996, Yahoo! had its initial public offering, raising $33.8 million dollars, by selling 2.6 million shares at $13 each.
"Yahoo" had already been trademarked for barbecue sauce, knives (by EBSCO Industries) and human propelled watercraft (by Old Town Canoe Co.). Therefore, in order to get the trademark, Yang and Filo added the exclamation mark to the name.[3] However, the exclamation mark is often incorrectly omitted when referring to Yahoo!
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