5 search engines that dominated pre-Google World Wide Web

Team Udayavani, Jul 11, 2020, 5:52 PM IST

The World Wide Web (WWW or W3)would have been difficult to use if not for the web search engine allowing for the indexed presentation of the information we need.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, Google Search has been the dominant web search engine available on the W3.

However, before Google, many web search engines existed that indexed websites on the W3.

Here are the 5 most used web search engines that ruled the World Wide Web before Google usurped them all:

1. Aliweb
The world’s oldest search engine still operational. It was developed by the Dutch programmer Martijn Koster and released in May 1994. Websites had to be registered on the search engine to be indexed in its search results making it more of a web directory.

2. Web Crawler
Released a few months after Aliweb, this search engine too is operational today, however, it aggregates search results from Google and Yahoo.

3. Altavista
Shut down in 2003, this was the most popular search until Google.

4. Ask Jeeves
This search engine presented results in first of its kind Q & A format. It was later rebranded as Ask.com.

5. Yahoo! Search
Launched in 1995, this service by Yahoo allowed searches within its own web directory – Yahoo! Directory