Which search engines did you use back in the day before Google?

The first actual search engine I used was WebCrawler but I was also on the web when you could only find stuff using the equivalent of a telephone directory. You got a list of sites but it depended on the site operator adding their site to database and you could only search by the site name and a few keywords that had been associated with the site.

I am embarrassed to admit I used Archie and Veronica when I paid for AOL by the hour.
Later I used Altavista until becoming enamored with Yahoo. I still use Yahoo and Google. I use different profiles, private browsing, and ghostery so the bread crumbs I leave are scattered and confusing. I know it is like spitting into the wind but at least I try to turn my head . I think I will look up something useless right now… abyssinian cats.

Crap… what was it called… HotBot or something like that?

Books, almanacs, and encyclopedias.

I used Ilse (a Dutch search engine) back in the days before Google.

A message from 16 February, 1996

“Hello,

We have developped the ILSE search engine. This engine can be found at
http://www.il.ft.hse.nl/ilse

With our current provider we are to restricted in use of bandwidth and
possibilities to exploit the search engine commercially.

We want to hire a server with fast internet connection to run the search
engine. We need at least 100 Mb (WTF, 100 Mb, rebbel) to store the engine. We prefere a FreeBSD
server. We also want our own domain name (ic www.protex.com or
www.protex.nl )

Any good offers can be mailed to pro…@”

Apparently it still exists.

Does anyone know what the first search engine ever was?

I used to use Profusion all the time. I started using Google after reading a William Gibson book called Pattern Recognition. In that book the protagonist is always googling to investigate or find info. It was the first time I ever heard Google used as a verb. That was a long time ago! Hard to imagine now that it has become the go to search engine that it is.

I just found this list of many search engines broken down into various specialized types. Now I’m curious as to which of these search engines anyone has actually used.

I was really into Dogpile. I think google borrowed a lot from them.

I can’t recall what I used on the computer before Google, but in prehistoric times, I got info from the dctionary, encyclopedia, public library, newspapers, magazines, teachers, co-workers, relatives, and TV and radio, and books other than reference types. I guess my best search engine was my own curiosity.

A bloodhound & magnifying glass strapped to a sit on petrol mower.

I used Alta Vista and Yahoo. I think I preferred Alta Vista because it wasn’t what everyone else was using. If I remember correctly, everyone jumped on Google as soon as they realized that it had incorporated a good map search. Before that, MapQuest was the thing to use, and it wasn’t very good (although of course, what it offered compared to having nothing was incredible, really).

@elbanditoroso well if we’re playing that game – when I completed my first degree the Science Citation Index and the like was contained in multiple large tomes that took up an entire floor in the library. A literature search that takes 10 minutes online now used to take the best part of a week.

@Lightlyseared – yep, SCI was an excellent source; the guy who started it – Eugene Garfield – was a genius. That company, still in existence but owned by Thomson these days, changed the face of research,

I used Yahoo and Webcrawler. There was also AltaVista way back. We had the internet at school and AltaVista was along for the ride with Netscape. Lol Netscape.

My first search engine (ha, seems like my first Barbie) was AskJeeves.

I then went over to Dogpile, which was a compiler of results from Yahoo, AltaVista, AOL and very young Google.

I remember AskJeeves lol. He was like this waiter guy, and if I recall, there was some voice module integrated on the engine that spoke out search results or something.

@Symbeline Yeah, now that you mention it, I remember Ask Jeeves, lol. I didn’t know it had a voice though. Did he sound like Barnabas Collins??

LOL no, he didn’t sound like him. I don’t quite remember what he sounded like, or if that was even the Jeeves site. I think so…but it could have been something else.

Aaah…poor Jeeves.

Exactly! @Symbeline except Jeeves was a butler based on P.G. Wodehouse’s character; typical line: “And she’s got brains enough for two, which is the exact qualtity the girl who marries you will need.”

The voice was really rudimentary and robotic. Quite pre-Siri

Gopher, Archie, Veronica and Jughead using CompuServe.

I think I mostly used Yahoo, although I tried several, including the others you listed. But I didn’t really get the Internet or the idea of searching much before Google came along, so my online searching habits have pretty much grown up with Google.

Like @elbanditoroso and @Pachyderm_In_The_Room, I relied heavily on offline resources for what I wanted to know, and to a considerable extent I still do.

I’d prefer not to give Google any of my information, but it’s already too late for that.

All the ones you listed. Was Lycos the one with the dog (black Labrador I think?) as it’s “logo”?

First W3Catalog, sadly gone. I started using WebCrawler a bit in 1994 but more often Lycos. When AltaVista and Yahoo’s Directory came out, I used them as well. But Google really set the bar when they took off in 1998.

I believe the very first search engine was Archie.

I think it was Netscape Navigator. Seems so long ago!

Ask Jeeves and dogpile and I still go to the library weekly with my children and use books and periodicals.

Altavista.

There were days before Google?! How ever did people survive? :)

I think I used Ask Jeeves and Yahoo.

I used Yahoo…