Google Generation

Monier was trying to create a sales demonstration for the new Alpha processor, basically a public relations ploy to show how powerful Digital Equipment Corp.’s new processor was. Monier put the entire Web on one computer to showcase the speed of the new processor; this is how the search engine AltaVista was born.

With no marketing and no formal announcement AltaVista generated nearly 300,000 visits on its first day alone. Within a year, the site had served more than 4 billion queries. Four billion—nearly as many queries as people on the Earth. AltaVista went online in 1995. It was the first search engine to allow natural-language searches and other advanced search techniques. AltaVista also provided multimedia search capability for photos, music, and videos . By 1997 AltaVista was truly the king of search. Serving more than 25 million queries a day and on track to make $50 million in sponsorship revenue . AltaVista in 1999 was the Google of its time and the most popular brand on the Web. The Web site was in a three-way tie with AOL and Yahoo! as the most important destination on the Web.