Kristen Waggener
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In search of life before Google
editorial
Kristen Waggener
I logged on to the Internet on Wednesday, opened up my search browser to the well-known Google and searched for “YouTube.”
Nothing.
“Sarah Palin”?
Nothing.
“iPod”?
Some mumbo-jumbo on a device called the image proof of deposit document processing system. Nothing about the popular Macintosh micro-music players many of us have come to know and love.
No, I haven’t gone crazy, nor does my computer have some major Internet bug that I need to get fixed. I just logged on to Google circa 2001.
And let me tell you, it was a whole different world back then.
No watching television shows on the Internet, let alone watching videos at all. Many computers were still equipped with the “ultra-fast” 56K dial-up modem, which couldn’t handle large files at all.
September 11 hadn’t happened, and a search for the date turns up something called the Annotated Galactic Center, who had a space photo taken Sept. 11, 1999.
How is this possible?
I’m not some sort of time-traveler, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m just an avid reader of blogs online, including Google’s official blog, www.googleblog.blogspot.com.
The company continually updates the blog with interesting information about upcoming developments on its site and new features it is testing. And, in honor of the Web site’s 10th birthday this year, Google uploaded its oldest available search index, which came from January 2001. The company worked with the Internet archive to link to the cached pages of Web sites in January 2001 to provide truer results.
The differences between Google 2001, www.google.com/search2001/, and now are hard to fathom without actually seeing them. The most obvious is Google’s logo. Before the sleek, shadowy thin letters of today’s Google existed, little, bulgy, fat ones followed by an exclamation point ruled the Google home page.
Google 2001 proudly proclaims it searches 1,326,920,000 Web pages. I couldn’t find 2008’s count, but a quick search on Google now for “the” returns 16,440,000,000 Web pages in 0.39 seconds.
Though it’ll only be available for a month, Google 2001 is a fun tool to use just to get a few “aha” moments. Like when you Google yourself. Apparently, in 2001, I didn’t exist. But now, there’s 182 Web pages that reference my name.
The company says the site isn’t exactly like it was in 2001, but it’s pretty darn close.
Take a look. Google yourself and a few of your favorite topics. You’ll be surprised at how different things are nearly eight years later.
Lucky for me, though, “reality TV” came up with about 853,000 search results in 2001. That’s enough to keep me busy for a while.
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I logged on to the Internet on Wednesday, opened up my search browser to the well-known Google and searched for “YouTube.”
Nothing.
“Sarah Palin”?
Nothing.
“iPod”?
Some mumbo-jumbo on a device called the image proof of deposit document processing system. Nothing about the popular Macintosh micro-music players many of us have come to know and love.
No, I haven’t gone crazy, nor does my computer have some major Internet bug that I need to get fixed. I just logged on to Google circa 2001.
And let me tell you, it was a whole different world back then.
No watching television shows on the Internet, let alone watching videos at all. Many computers were still equipped with the “ultra-fast” 56K dial-up modem, which couldn’t handle large files at all.
September 11 hadn’t happened, and a search for the date turns up something called the Annotated Galactic Center, who had a space photo taken Sept. 11, 1999.
How is this possible?
I’m not some sort of time-traveler, if that’s what you’re thinking. I’m just an avid reader of blogs online, including Google’s official blog, www.googleblog.blogspot.com.
The company continually updates the blog with interesting information about upcoming developments on its site and new features it is testing. And, in honor of the Web site’s 10th birthday this year, Google uploaded its oldest available search index, which came from January 2001. The company worked with the Internet archive to link to the cached pages of Web sites in January 2001 to provide truer results.
The differences between Google 2001, www.google.com/search2001/, and now are hard to fathom without actually seeing them. The most obvious is Google’s logo. Before the sleek, shadowy thin letters of today’s Google existed, little, bulgy, fat ones followed by an exclamation point ruled the Google home page.
Google 2001 proudly proclaims it searches 1,326,920,000 Web pages. I couldn’t find 2008’s count, but a quick search on Google now for “the” returns 16,440,000,000 Web pages in 0.39 seconds.
Though it’ll only be available for a month, Google 2001 is a fun tool to use just to get a few “aha” moments. Like when you Google yourself. Apparently, in 2001, I didn’t exist. But now, there’s 182 Web pages that reference my name.
The company says the site isn’t exactly like it was in 2001, but it’s pretty darn close.
Take a look. Google yourself and a few of your favorite topics. You’ll be surprised at how different things are nearly eight years later.
Lucky for me, though, “reality TV” came up with about 853,000 search results in 2001. That’s enough to keep me busy for a while.