• @MutilationWave
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    4 hours ago

    Altavista was the shit when it came out. My classmates and friends were surprised at how quick I was getting answers or general information. Altavista, that’s it. If you’re using Ask Jeeves or Yahoo you’re going to have a hard time.

    I can’t remember how I found out about it, but it’s what I used until Google came out. Anyone know if they were the first to use web crawlers like that or did they just popularize the concept?

    • MudMan
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      24 hours ago

      I’m fuzzy on the timeline, but it was definitely THE search engine for a while. And I’d say the one that’s most memory-holed. I feel like Yahoo’s unlikely survival as some vestigial online service made people remember it and I guess Americans in particular had an Ask Jeeves moment at some point? For me it was Altavista until Google, for sure, and they were trading blows for a good while. I almost remember Gmail being the thing that tipped the scales more than the search quality.