September 1990
Archie search engine launched
Alan Emtage launched Archie in September 1990 at McGill University — the first tool for indexing FTPFile Transfer Protocol — a classic protocol for uploading and downloading files over networks. archives across the internet.
What it was for
Archie crawled anonymous FTPFile Transfer Protocol — a classic protocol for uploading and downloading files over networks. servers and let users search filenames before the web existed — a direct ancestor of Yahoo, Google, and every search box. It proved the internet needed discovery layers on top of raw protocols.
People
- Alan Emtage — creator
Why it's here
Archie was the first internet search engine.
Why it mattered
It showed indexed discovery was essential as networked files exploded.
What it solved
FTPFile Transfer Protocol — a classic protocol for uploading and downloading files over networks. servers multiplied; users could not manually find files across hosts.
Media
ImageArchie (search engine)The-Dubnob, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Related
- WorldWideWeb — first web browserDecember 1990
- FTP standardizedOctober 1985
- Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporate GoogleSeptember 4, 1998