Where Are They Now? Search Engines We've Known & Loved

AltaVista, the Google of its day, is now to be gobbled up by Overture. It's a famous name that's seen better days. But AltaVista's not the only major search player to have faded, as years have gone by. Come along and see the early search engines that have died, those that have been transformed, who's survived and how the "new" players that are no longer so young are doing.

Of interest to history buffs will also be my The End For Search Engines? article, written at the beginning of 2001, when many assumed search engines were a dying breed (I argued differently). Also, see the Major Search Engines page for links to some of the services mentioned below and additional history.

Rest In Peace

Open Text (1995-1997): Yahoo's original search partner was also a popular web search site of its own in 1995. The company crawled the web to gather listings, just as Google does today. Open Text decided to focus instead on enterprise search solutions, where it is currently successful. Web search operations closed in mid-1997.

Magellan (1995-2001): An early search engine that saw its popularity drop immediately after being purchased by Excite in mid-1996. It was closed in April 2001.

Infoseek (1995-2001): Launched in early 1995, Infoseek originally hoped to charge for searching. When that failed, the popular search engine shifted to depending like others on banner ads. Disney took a large stake in the company in 1998 and went down the "portal" path that other leading search engines had followed. The site was also renamed "Go." Its failure to make money caused Disney to stop Go's own internal search capabilities abruptly in early 2001. Today, Go remains operating, powered by Google.

Snap (1997-2001): Launched by CNET in 1997, Snap first used Infoseek, then Inktomi, then created its own directory of human-edited listings that were coupled with clickthrough technology that ranked results in part by what people clicked on. NBC later acquired a majority interest in the company, then renamed it NBCi and intended to win the "portal wars" with the site. But as with Disney and Infoseek, the site's internal search technology was abruptly closed in early 2001. It is currently powered by meta search results from Infospace.

Direct Hit (1998-2002): When Google first appeared as the hot new search technology in 1998, so did Direct Hit, featuring the ability to measure what people clicked on in search results as a way to make those better. It gained a deal with HotBot and was offered as a search feature on other portals such as Lycos and MSN. It was purchased by Ask Jeeves in 2000, then neglected over the following years. The site was formally closed in early 2002.

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