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To begin with, a list of new servers for the World Wide Web was
edited by Tim Berners-Lee. As time went back the amount of new servers
grew exponentially and it was impossible to manually edit the amount
of new servers and sites created. This is when it became apparent
that a automated computer system was needed to edit and access new
servers.
The first automated tool for searching the Internet was 'Archie'
(ftp search). In the early 1990's Gopher was a popular application
for accessing online documents. Veronica was a preeminent search
engine on the Gopher platform. However, neither of these search
engines worked on the World Wide Web. The first programs to 'crawl'
and store documents hosted on the Web was the 'World Wide Web Wanderer'
and 'Wandex', developed by Matthew
Gray in 1993.
There were quite a few other web robots/crawlers created after
Wanderer, but most of them were fairly basic. WebCrawler was the
first to be able to crawl and store every word from a Web document.
In 1994 it was at the pinnacle of search engine technology, but
was soon rivaled by the likes of Lycos and Yahoo!. Both of whom
continue to exert a large presence on the Web. The others which
shot to stardom but then fell to earth were Magellan, Infoseek,
Northern Light, and AltaVista.
Search Engines have continued to be the main way people search
the World Wide Web for documents. Search Engines are now huge online
databases of web documents that allow you to search for specific
queries on every subject imaginable. For example if you were looking
for "computer game cheat codes" or "native orchids
from brazil" you would type this into the search box and hundreds
of resources are at your fingertips.
The one problem early search engines found, was, how to make money?
The early crawlers were free, so obviously there was no income from
that. Some engines flirted with paid only inclusion, or paid listing
which promised a higher ranking, but then this negatively effected
the users experience, with commercial rather than educational resources
dominating the search results. The paid engines, thus, found their
popularity soon in jeopardy.
The answer lay in the next market leader, Google. Their main search
results were free, thus satisfying their users, but paid listings
were available above and to the side of the main results, enabling
the company to make a profit. Google also provided some additional
innovations. Pagerank, to battle against web spam, the bane of early
engines.
Google was also the first company to solely concentrate on search
results, with a minimal and fast loading homepage. Basically just
a search box and a logo. At the time the majority of worldwide users
were on a dialup connection. Therefore, a fast loading homepage,
in comparison to cluttered offerings from competitors, gave Google
a definite edge and selling point.
Google has continued, to the present day, to be the market leader.
Simple because, to most users, it provides the more relevant results.
This is due to a number of factors, amongst them a larger database
of websites, but primarily a superior algorithm (mathematical programming
system used to determine which web pages are displayed in search
results).
Present day, the majority of search engines have a free submission
(but they do not promise to list your website). There are search
result providers like Overture who do charge money for an express
or superior listing. But, generally, search engines use Pay Per
Click advertising, where a search engine charges for every click.
There has been an ongoing search war between Google, Yahoo and
MSN. Both Yahoo and MSN have launched new search technology since
2004. The profits and prominence of Google has taken them to God
like status on the Web. Rather than to invent a new paradigm, Yahoo
and MSN have attempted to beat Google at their own game. With a
main search index which is free, paid listings in the same on screen
position, and results which ape Google's algorithm. MSN has recently
(2009) renamed it's search results Bing.
Major Search engines - - Alta Vista
- AskJeeves
- Teoma
- Fast Alltheweb.com
- Google
- MSN Bing
PPC
(pay per click) search engines - Directories
-
- Looksmart
- ODP (The Open Directory Project)
- Yahoo
Metasearch
(searches multiple search engine results and displays them on the same page)
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