A Timeline of Prominent Search Engines and Their Release Dates

Archie

The first search engine, created in 1990 by Alan Emtage at McGill University, originally designed to search for files on FTP servers.


Aliweb

Launched in 1993, it allowed webmasters to submit their pages and descriptions for indexing without a bot.


WebCrawler

The first search engine to offer full-text search, launched in 1994, it indexed the entire content of web pages.


Lycos

Launched in 1994, it introduced algorithms that measured search term frequency and word proximity on pages.


Yahoo!

Founded in 1994 as a web directory, it evolved into a search engine and later partnered with other search technologies.


AltaVista

Launched in 1995, it was one of the first search engines with its own index and allowed natural language queries.


Excite

Launched in 1995, it was based on the Architext project and utilized statistical analysis for search efficiency.


Ask Jeeves

Introduced in 1996, it was a natural language search engine that allowed users to ask questions.


Google

Founded in 1998, it revolutionized search with its PageRank algorithm that utilized links to gauge page importance.


MSN Search

Launched in 1998, it struggled initially but underwent several rebranding efforts before becoming Bing in 2009.


Baidu

Founded in 2000, it became the leading search engine in China, focusing on the local market and complying with government regulations.


Bing

Launched in 2009, it aimed to compete directly with Google by enhancing result suggestions and integrating with Microsoft products.


DuckDuckGo

Founded in 2008, it emphasizes user privacy and provides the same search results to all users without tracking.


Ecosia

Established in 2009, this eco-friendly search engine uses its ad revenue to plant trees.


Yandex

Launched in 1997, it became the dominant search engine in Russia, known for its understanding of the Russian language.


HotBot

Initially launched in 1996, later became a meta search engine, known for its colorful interface and fresh results.


Teoma

Introduced in 2000, it utilized clustering to organize search results based on subject-specific popularity.


Ask.com

The rebranding of Ask Jeeves in 2006, adapting to modern search needs while maintaining its legacy.


Infoseek

Started in 1995 and later purchased by Disney, it attempted to innovate but ultimately failed in the competitive search market.


AllTheWeb

Launched in 1999, it served as a strong competitor to Google but was eventually acquired by Overture.


LookSmart

Established in 1995, it functioned as a directory before transitioning to a pay-per-click model.


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