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> if you would really remember how the old web worked or ever used Altavista or other early search-engines to look for stuff, you'd realise the web is a LOT m

by cbtacy 5y ago

> if you would really remember how the old web worked or ever used Altavista or other early search-engines to look for stuff, you'd realise the web is a LOT more accessible today, with a lot more information available. I would dispute this. At that time, search was not gamed the way it is now, you didn't have to wade through millions of terrible low quality SEO bs to find the nuggets you're looking for.

flyinghamster 5y ago
It was early SEO that helped to do in AltaVista. When spammy, irrelevant search results started plaguing it, and AV's pages began to be crammed with ads, a neat little upstart came along with a very simple search page and a clean user interface, that returned better search results. This, of course, was Google, and guess what's happened to Google in the meantime? We've come full circle. The SEO gaming, of course, continues unabated, and will continue as long as search engines exist.
lhorie 5y ago
Back in the day, a lot of content that we take for granted today didn't even exist online (e.g. wikipedia, webmd, heck even mundane things like maps) As someone who got into the web industry through discovering content for a niche topic, search engines have always been only a superficial helper in finding content, with most content discovery happening through finding niche, relevant, obscure long tail keywords via deep diving, then unearthing more content via deep diving into searches based on these new keywords, rinse and repeat.
- layer8 5y ago
  Right, though back then the search engines at least honored the exact search terms you entered and provided useful operators.
kingcharles 5y ago
It was so easy to game Altavista you didn't even have to try. I was gaming the search engines starting in 1996. I was #1 for whatever term I wanted. It was a lot harder once PageRank came along and required you to have external parties essentially vouch for you.

by cbtacy 5y ago

flyinghamster 5y ago

It was early SEO that helped to do in AltaVista. When spammy, irrelevant search results started plaguing it, and AV's pages began to be crammed with ads, a neat little upstart came along with a very simple search page and a clean user interface, that returned better search results. This, of course, was Google, and guess what's happened to Google in the meantime? We've come full circle. The SEO gaming, of course, continues unabated, and will continue as long as search engines exist.

lhorie 5y ago

Back in the day, a lot of content that we take for granted today didn't even exist online (e.g. wikipedia, webmd, heck even mundane things like maps) As someone who got into the web industry through discovering content for a niche topic, search engines have always been only a superficial helper in finding content, with most content discovery happening through finding niche, relevant, obscure long tail keywords via deep diving, then unearthing more content via deep diving into searches based on these new keywords, rinse and repeat.

layer8 5y ago
Right, though back then the search engines at least honored the exact search terms you entered and provided useful operators.

kingcharles 5y ago

It was so easy to game Altavista you didn't even have to try. I was gaming the search engines starting in 1996. I was #1 for whatever term I wanted. It was a lot harder once PageRank came along and required you to have external parties essentially vouch for you.