History of search engines development

At the dawn of the Internet, there was no need for search engines, the first sites were already self-sufficient libraries, and besides, there were very few of them. However, Tim Bernes-Lee, the creator of the World Wide Web, independently maintained a list of created web servers. With the increase in the number of sites, it was no longer possible to maintain this database manually.

Timeline of search engines

The Archie service became the prototype of modern search engines. It was created by three Canadian students in 1990. The software downloaded a list of all (!) available files from the servers and formed a database, where you could then search by name.

In 1993, the first primitive search engine W3Catalog appeared. The algorithm still involved the use of manually compiled server lists. The content of the pages was transformed, individual sections were displayed to the user through the interface. The project lasted only three years, but gave rise to the development of technology, without which today we cannot imagine the Internet.

A new step forward was the launch of the first search engine, which was full-text and indexed resources using a robot. It was called WebCrawler, and it was in 1994. This service became widespread and set the standards for subsequent search engines.

At the same time, two Stanford University students Jerry Yang and David Philo created a website with the following address: akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo

! The exclamation point was added to Yahoo's name, as at that time there was a registered trademark of the same name for barbecue sauce.

The company grew and developed rapidly, for example, in 1997, as a result of the purchase of RocketMail, the Yahoo! Mail service appeared, and in 1999, Yahoo! Messenger.

In the early 00s after the "Boom of dotcoms", remaining one of the few Internet companies to stay afloat, Yahoo! bought up and absorbed other search engines. Today Yahoo! one of the top three search engines in the world. Sounds solid, but only until you read up to the percentage in the ranking.

Google appeared in 1998. It's another Stanford students' project, this time by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Around the same time, Yandex appeared in Russia, which would never enter the world market, but would be popular in the CIS countries.

Another search engine, Microsoft Network Search, which we now all know as Bing, appeared in the same 1998. It was a productive year.

Algorithms of MSN Search and Google began to be used in other search engines. For example, Google's search bots were used by Yahoo! until 2004.

Over time, search engines have become not only user tools, but also platforms for business, including advertising.

By the way, if in the first few years of the existence of the three whales of search (Yahoo!, Google, Bing), one could talk about competitiveness, today everything has become quite obvious.

Worldwide search engine usage statistics

The Google search engine has 6 bots that index sites for devices running various operating systems, scan images and other content, and there is also a robot for evaluating the quality of pages. The algorithm is taken as a basis by many companies, and the project has undoubtedly become one of the most successful in the XXI century.

Its success can be judged by these numbers:

The source of statistical data hereinafter is statcounter.com

Google has been holding a high bar for more than 10 years, slowly and steadily increasing the share of traffic. In 2009, it accounted for about 90% of the world's search queries, today it is 92.5%.

It occupies the first position in all countries of the world, except for one. Guess, in which state, Google is not the first? Absolutely right, this is China. In China, it closes the top five search engines with a modest 2.58% behind local search engines. The leader of the Chinese ranking is Baidu, which accounts for as much as 68% of user search queries.

In our northern neighbors, Google pulled ahead of Yandex just last year. Today in the Russian Federation, Google is ahead of Yandex with an indicator of 53% versus 44%.

And what have we?

In Ukraine, the Google rating is even higher than in the world. As much as 94% for today.

The chart also shows that Bing and Yahoo! for Ukrainian users are completely uninteresting.

Why Google?

Not only a well-established algorithm, convenience and design allow Google to hold high positions in the rankings. The fact is that this particular search engine is built-in and is used by default in Android smartphones, as well as in the Chrome browser.

Look at the statistics of the use of browsers in the world:

The graph shows the distribution of computer, tablet and smartphone users. Looking at each group of devices individually, Chrome ranks first with 60%+ on desktop and phones, while Safari leads the way on tablets (52%).

This browser is used by owners of iOS devices. Therefore, we can say that the history of modern tablets not only began with the iPad, but also continues.

Keep in mind that Google, in addition to search, offers users convenient and necessary services, such as disk, music, translator, map service, mail, the largest video platform (YouTube) and document management tools.

Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that this search engine will lose ground in the coming years.

Interesting Facts

Over the years of its existence, Google has constantly evolved and added development vectors. However, the logo, which was first presented to the public at the diploma defense of one of the founders, has practically not changed.

Why do you think the Google start page looks a bit "empty"? Is minimalism up to date these days? In general, yes, but this is how it is from the very beginning. The fact is that at the dawn of the appearance of the service, the interface was far from the most important. And the only and rather difficult task for the developers was the “Search” button. Actually, this, like the logo, has become a tradition.

According to statistics, the number of processed search requests is about 4.5 billion. This is approximately one request per Internet user.

10 years ago, about 1% of users used search engines from mobile phones. Today their number has increased to 58%.

The number of voice search queries is growing even more rapidly. According to forecasts, in 2020, half of the commands will be given through OK Google. So far, the forecast has not been confirmed, but there are still 9 months ahead.

If you want to watch a perfectionist glaring at a screen, ask him to write the word Askew in a Google search. And try it yourself too.