Background to Google’s rise: Yahoo! and Excite
The beginning of search engines can be traced back to a bunch of students in California at Stanford University.
We first must meet Jerry Yang and David Filo. Back in January 1994 they were just Electrical Engineering Graduate Students. And at the time they created a website called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web”. On April of the same year they renamed it “Yahoo!”.
On the other hand, the same year a group of students also from Stanford University launched Excite (initially called Architext). And their intention was to also offer the online service of searching the web.
Yahoo! and Excite immediately initiated a battle for the first place, but eventually diversified their focus from their original purpose of serving as search engines. The incorporation of email services, instant messenger services, gamming services and other innovating features, made them overlook the main goal of searching the World Wide Web.
During this period, it was still a real headache to find what one was looking for on the Internet. By the time the Google boys came up with their algorithm, Yahoo! and Excite were authority sites.
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WOW - you always do the most interesting trainings! ;-)
Thank you for the history about Google. I remember those early years - I didn't like Google at all and never used them. I preferred http://www.Mamma.com or http://www.AllTheWeb.com. Mamma's slogan was "The Mother of all search engines", but today they are only about coupons, it looks like. It also looks like AllTheWeb has been taken over by Yahoo.
I remember that I got a free sewing pattern from http://TuCows.com, which was a winner. But today, TuCows is a very different website than what it used to be.
And I loved your comics too - you are very creative! Although I sincerely hope you are wrong with your prediction to which extent Google will invade our privacy!
Much enjoyed - thank you, Henry!
Sharlee (Chocolate IceCream)
Thank you very much! That’s very kind of you! I greatly appreciate your comment and value very much your encouragement. :)
I didn’t know about those sites. Thank you very much for that background concerning those popular sites at the time of Google’s rise. I will check them up to get a bit more acquainted with them. I could even briefly state them here as existent during that initial stage of search engines (as were Excite and Yahoo!)
I’ve always found it interesting to learn a bit about the origins of things that after time and lots of effort have become extremely popular. I like to get acquainted with what challenges they encountered in their first stages and how they overcame.
Thank you very much for your complement concerning the comic. :) I hope the idea of running a comic simultaneously and just partially related to the content doesn’t distract readers. I’d like to hear about your impression. And as you hope concerning Google’s future, I also hope too! :) :) :)
Regarding the comic... No, I didn't find it distracting at all. In fact, I actually found it refreshing. ;-)
It broke the huge chunks of text (not only written but also the factualness of it) and made it seem more "digestible".
I couldn't help but smile every time I read the little comic strip, but then your first sentence below it recaptivated my attention and I read on seamlessly.
It worked very well in my humble opinion, I loved it, Henry! Well done! ;-)
Sharlee (Chocolate IceCream)
Thank you so much for your feedback concerning the comic in the middle of the training. I’m just getting used to the idea and am grateful you took your time to give me your honest impression.
I haven’t seen others doing it in blogs or trainings and it’s natural to have a bit of concern if it really works. My intention was exactly what you have expressed, so I’ll continue to test this concept.
Thank you very much for being so kind. I greatly appreciate your friendship. I owe you so much! Keep well! :) :) :)
I didn't know all this.. I can understand Google more now.
Thank you... Ya, lol... I love your cartoons!!
Monica
Thank you very much! You’re very nice. :) I had been interested in Google’s background and started doing a bit of research for personal purposes. But once I had gone into it, I realized that my approach to writing posts and finding keywords slightly changed. So I thought “Hey, this might be good to share with the community.” :)
Keep well! I’m always delighted to hear from you. All the best! :)
Congratulations Henry-ll
