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Alan Erntage, a student at McGill University in Montreal, created the first search engine in 1990. Erntage's search engine worked by downloading directory lists on anonymous FTP sites, but did not index. Using similar technology, Mark McGill at the University of Minnesota created two search engines, Veronica and Jughead. The names were spin off of the original, although the Archie's connection to the popular comic book series was purely accidental.
Google gained predominance as a search engine around 2001, emphasizing the concept of link popularity and "Page Rank." Since the Google search engine technology represents minimal user interface it remains extremely popular and has had many imitators. An interesting side note is that the "Page Rank" concept was based on the citation analysis of Eugene Garfield in the 1950s at the University of Pennsylvania.
Another popular search engine site remains Yahoo, created by David Flo and Jerry Yang, two bright PhD candidates in electrical engineering at Stanford University. The idea for what was to become Yahoo started in their trailer on campus, as Flo and Yang experimented with better ways to keep track of their favorite sites on the web. This lead to the subcategories core concept behind Yahoo. Yahoo used Google search engines until 2004. At this time, Yahoo launched their own search engine that combined the two technologies.
From their trailers at Stanford, Flo and Yang might have looked out the window of the Mitchell Earth Sciences building, which was retrofitted using some parts of precast concrete in 1997. California has been a hub of innovation, from Redi Rock wall systems to silicon microchips to sophisticated software.
Microsoft's search engine was known as "MSN Search" until 2006 when they launched their latest search engine technology with "Live Search," leaving behind the name "MSN Search."
The name "Baidu" does not bring to mind anything in particular American, but for China, it represents the leading search engine. As the world population reaches the six billion mark, China represent 20 % of the world population, many of whom are internet users. Baidu, launched in 2000, uses an interface similar to Google and brings 740 million web pages, 80 million images, and 10 million multimedia files into Chinese homes and businesses.
Search engines continue to be the base of Internet users' experiences, the virtual precast concrete cornerstone that shapes the way people all over the world find information over the web. The challenge remains for growth of the search engine technology to keep up with the growth of the web. As Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft once noted, "I think it's fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we've ever created. They're tools of communication, they're tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user."
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