History of Search Engines and Directories - Search Engine History

Below is a table showing a summary of the history of search engines and directories. This table is updated as historical events occur within the search engine industry and as new information becomes available about past search engine history.

Search Engine History data last modified: 2007-06-03

2007
R1		 2007 June . . .
Google
Acquisitions		 . . .
2006
R1		 2006 August 2006 August 2006 September .
Google launches
Writely Beta		 Danny Sullivan
resigning from SEW		 MSN launches
Live Search		 .
2006
R2		 2006 March 2006 March 2006 March 2006 April
Google acquires
Writely.com		 Google launches
Google Mars		 Google joins the
S&P 500 Index		 Yahoo! launches
FairChase Travel
2006
R3		 2006 January 2006 February 2006 February 2006 March
Google launches
Google Video		 SE traffic 5.1 billion
searches per month		 Teoma/Ask.com
The Butler is gone		 Zeal Directory
discontinued
2005
R1		 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 December
MSN acquires
Teleo (VoIP)		 Google offers free
WiFi to San Francisco		 Google launches
Google Local		 AOL acquires
Truveo
2005
R2		 2005 March 2005 May 2005 June 2005 August
IAC/InterActiveCorp
acquires AskJeeves		 AskJeeves acquires
Excite Europe		 Corey Rudl
dies at age 34		 Incisive acquires
SearchEngineWatch
2005
R3		 2005 March 2005 March 2005 January 2005 January
Yahoo! Celebrates
10th Anniversary		 Overture Renamed
Yahoo! SMS		 Gigablast Index Size
1,000,000,000+		 AOL Search
Relaunches
2004
R1		 2004 November 2004 November 2004 August 19 2004 September
New MSN Search Google Index Size
8,058,044,651		 Google IPO
GOOG NASDAQ		 Amazon launches
A9.com Search
2004
R2		 2004 August 2004 June 2004 June 2004 June
Yahoo! launches
Local Search Engine		 New MSN Search
Technology Preview		 AOL acquires
Advertising.com		 Yahoo! launches
Yisou.com China
2004
R3		 2004 June 2004 June 2004 March 2004 March
Ask Jeeves acquires
Tukaroo Search		 Google invests in
Baidu Search China		 AltaVista switches
to Yahoo! Search		 Google Gmail
free email service
2004
R4		 2004 March 2004 March 2004 March 2004 March
Yahoo! Toolbar
with WebRank		 AlltheWeb switches
to Yahoo! Search		 AskJeeves acquires
Excite, iWon, My Way		 Yahoo! Site Match™
powered by Overture
2004
R4		 2004 February 2004 February 2004 February 2004 January
Yahoo! Web Search
powered by Yahoo!		 Lycos Search
discontinued		 Lycos Communities
discontinued		 New MSN
Search BETA
2003
R1		 2003 October 2003 October 2003 July 2003 June
Google acquires
Sprinks		 Yahoo! acquires
Overture		 Yahoo! to buy
Overture		 Google AdSense
2003
R2		 2003 April 2003 April 2003 April 2003 April
FindWhat acquires
Espotting		 Google acquires
Applied Semantics		 Overture acquires
AltaVista		 Overture acquires
Fast/AlltheWeb
2003
R3		 2003 March . . .
Yahoo! acquires
Inktomi		 . . .
2002
R1		 2002 December 2002 July 2002 March 2002 March
Froogle Gigablast
Beta		 LookSmart acquires
WiseNut		 Gigablast
Pre-Beta
2002
R2		 2002 February . . .
Google
AdWords Select		 . . .
2001
R1		 2001 October 2001 September 2001 September 2001 August
GoTo changes
name to Overture		 AskJeeves acquires
Teoma		 WiseNut LookSmart
integrates Zeal
2001
R2		 2001 May 2001 April 2001 February 2001 February
JoeAnt Teoma GoGuides Google acquires
Deja Archive
2000
R1		 2000 December 2000 October 2000 September 2000 September
Google Toolbar Google AdWords LookSmart acquires
Zeal Media		 Espotting
2000
R2		 2000 September 2000 June 2000 June 2000 May
Business.com Vivísimo Yahoo! Web Search
powered by Google		 Terra acquires
Lycos
1999
R1		 1999 November 1999 September 1999 August 1999 July
NBCi/Snap FindWhat AlltheWeb Disney acquires
Infoseek
1999
R2		 1999 June 1999 February 1999 January 1999
CMGI acquires
AltaVista		 GO Network At Home acquires
Excite		 About.com
1998
R1		 1998 October 1998 September 1998 September 1998 June
Lycos acquires
Wired/HotBot		 Google MSN Search ODP/DMOZ
1998
R2		 1998 May 1998 April 1998 .
Yahoo! Web Search
powered by Inktomi		 Direct Hit GoTo acquires
WWW Worm		 .
1997
R1		 1997 August 1997 July 1997 April 1997 February
Northern Light FAST Search Ask Jeeves The Mining
Company
1997
R2		 1997 . . .
GoTo . . .
1996
R1		 1996 October 1996 June 1996 May 1996 April
LookSmart Archive.org HotBot Alexa
1996
R2		 1996 January 1996 1996 .
BackRub Mamma Dogpile .
1995
R1		 1995 December 1995 October 1995 September 1995 August
AltaVista Excite Inktomi Magellan
1995
R2		 1995 August 1995 June 1995 May 1995 February
DejaNews MetaCrawler SavvySearch Infoseek
1994
R1		 1994 December 1994 July 1994 April 1994 April
First W3C
meeting at MIT		 Lycos Yahoo! WebCrawler
1994
R2		 1994 January 1994 . .
Galaxy Open Text . .
1993
R1		 1993 December 1993 December 1993 December 1993 November
RBSE JumpStation WWW Worm Aliweb
1993
R2		 1993 August 1993 June 1993 March 1993 March
Mosaic
Web Browser		 WWW Wanderer Jughead First email message
sent by Bill Clinton
1993
R3		 1993 February . . .
Architext . . .
1992
R1		 1992 December 1992 July . .
Veronica Lynx
Web Browser		 . .
1991
R1		 1991 May 1991 April 1991 April .
WWW Server
Production		 Gopher WAIS publisher
fed search engine		 .
1990
R1		 1990 December 1990 . .
WWW Server
Prototype		 Archie . .

Admin Note: The authors of the above search engine history summary do not claim that the dates indicated are 100% accurate. We've researched multiple documents from various resources and have ascertained that the dates above are an approximation based on the search engine history information we've obtained. Some dates represent inception of the search engine or directory. Other dates are actual launch dates where the search engine or directory was made available to the public.

Last modified: 2008-01-20T19:55:07-0800

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