I think you don't understand what "first" means in this context. It doesn't mean literally first. Here, read this description of first-mover advantage from Wi

I think you don't understand what "first" means in this context. It doesn't mean literally first. Here, read this description of first-mover advantage from Wikipedia: "In marketing, first-mover advantage or FMA is the advantage gained by the initial ("first-moving") significant occupant of a market segment." Notice the term "significant occupant". Second, notice the term "market segment". Just because you know it to be first doesn't mean it was the first to market. The fact that you know it to be first (assuming you know the market somewhat), implies that it was quite likely first-mover. In that if someone else was previously a significant occupant, you would have known of them. My friend who did New Haven Clique in 1994 and got 20 Yale friends to join wasn't first-mover. So you're saying AltaVista was first? (technically it wasn't) scratches head In the search space I think it probably was AV (and of course they abandoned to go portal -- which brings up the discontinuity argument that plagues first-mover discussions). The only other one I could think of was OT, but they were more of an engine and less of a search page destination. Almost everyone else was portals (although Yahoo/InfoSeek portals from the past would only barely resemble what we call portals today).