Do you remember the good old days when there was this particular search engine that you called AltaVista? Well, apparently that search engine is no more as promised earlier, as its owner, Yahoo Inc., has decided to ensure that it will never perform another search query, ever again on Monday. If you tried to key in AltaVista.com in your browser window, you would just get redirected to your country’s Yahoo.com landing page.
Let us take a moment to pause and remember that all things have a shelf life, and never to take things for granted. AltaVista started off in 1995 in Palo Alto, California, three years before Google Inc. was founded. It was overtaken by Google in the early 2000s, but at that time, AltaVista can be considered to be a lost cause. According to search industry expert Danny Sullivan, he did compared AltaVista to that of a bright child who was neglected by its parents, saying, “You were loved. You really were. People did not want to leave you. But despite adding new features, some of which Google copied, you couldn’t keep up with the pace and innovation of that company, which decided against becoming a portal like your corporate masters ordered for you.”
What were your fondest memories of AltaVista.com? Mine was the accompanying sound of a 56k modem dialing up…
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