Technology · 2
Which 1990s search engine, once so dominant it processed 80 million queries a day by 1998, turned down an acquisition offer from Google for under $1 million in 1997?
Answer
AltaVista
AltaVista launched in December 1995 and quickly became one of the web's most powerful search engines, famous for being the first to index the full text of web pages at scale. Its parent company Digital Equipment Corporation (later Compaq) declined to acquire Google in 1997 for under $1 million — a decision that proved catastrophically shortsighted as AltaVista faded into irrelevance by the mid-2000s.
💡 Did you know?
Altavista, the 1990s search giant, rejected an acquisition offer from Google for under $1 million in 1997, choosing to remain independent before eventual irrelevance.
Other options people guess
- Lycos
- Excite
- Ask Jeeves
Topics
- 1990s
- search-engines
- web-history
- internet
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