in my memories they were more registers/index than free text search engines. and besides that, some engines seemed in comparison to the clear interface cluttere

in my memories they were more registers/index than free text search engines. and besides that, some engines seemed in comparison to the clear interface cluttered, since they also were portals. Voting one down for describing another experience bothers me. The internet in a non-US country might have even been more different than nowaddays.