Search Revisionism: Alive and Well
September 27, 2018
I read “The Google Graveyard: Remembering Three Dead Search Engines.” I find it interesting how the reality perceived today seems to differ from the reality that existed in the 1990s. The write up answers the question, “Yo, dudes, what happened to three search engines?”
The three dead search engines explained or sort of described in the article are AskJeeves, Dogpile, and AltaVista.
The write up states:
Google is so ingrained in online culture that it feels as if it’s always been there.
I like feelings. Although after working at Halliburton Nuclear, I am not sure I am quite so warm and cuddly. Definitely Google was not “always” there.
And for those unfamiliar with the commercial databases like Chemical Abstracts and other commercial research services, I find this statement a bit disconcerting:
Google holds humanity’s knowledge in its search bar, and it has the ability to shape conversations on a massive scale. Imagine the internet as a million-volume collection of books, each one densely packed with essential information (and cat pictures).
Quite a statement. But people who use “always” often look for point and click solutions which require little or no attention.
You can skim the explanations of each the three search engines. I would like to offer additional information.
AskJeeves
This was a rule based system. Rules were written by humans. The AskJeeves’ system looked at a query, matched it to the rules, and offered an answer. Humans were and are expensive. Humans have to write and modify rules. AskJeeves’ death had little to do with Google and everything to do with the ineffectiveness of the system, its costs, and the resources required to come up with answers to those questions. A version of the service lives on and it is a “diller.” Sorry, dilly.
Dogpile
This services was a metasearch engine, and for a few years, a reasonable one. A user entered a query. Dogpile sent the query to other Web search engines and displayed results. The service ended up in the hands of InfoSpace, and the Dogpile engaged in some legal excitement and ended up the modern version of a one stop shop. In short, Dogpile is not yet dead.
AltaVista
Now that’s an interesting case. AltaVista was a demo of the DEC Alpha. Search was and is a complicated application. Compaq bought DEC. HP bought Compaq. HP, the management wizards, left AltaVista high and dry. Messrs. Brin and Page hired several interesting people from AltaVista; for example, Jeff Dean, Simon Tong, et al. AltaVista disappeared because HP was not exactly on the ball. Alums of AltaVista went on to set up Exalead, now a unit of Dassault Systèmes. The Exalead search system is still online at www.exalead.com/search.
NetNet
AskJeeves was not a Web search engine. Dogpile was a metasearch engine and did little original crawling and indexing. AltaVista is embedded in certain technological ways in the Google system. And, by the way, Google is not the place to go if your child has been poisoned and your doctor needs an antidote.
Even those who do not understand information can figure out the limits of ad supported, free information. At least I hope so.
Stephen E Arnold, September 27, 2018
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