Mapping The History Of Search Engines
Unraveling The Purpose And Function Of The Technology We Use To Traverse The World Wide Web
Introduction
Like most technology, search engines have a “long nose of innovation”. The thought was conceived in 1945 and the first search engine was designed in 1990. By conducting research through the historical lens, we found that the purpose and the function of this technology evolved over the course of those 45 years, and continues to do so. Our intention is to represent the story that emerged from the interesting information that we came across and to present it in the form of a visual map.
Research
While conducting our research about various search engines we kept the following questions in mind — Who designed it? What was the design setting? What was its intended purpose? Who was it designed for? Who had access to it? How did it function? Is it still in use? What was it used for?
The Narrative
The answers to these questions varied from one search engine to the other. What stood out to us the most was the gradual change in the purpose and function of each of them. The first form of a search engine was a query form that allowed users to locate downloadable files at the local library network of a university. After the invention of the World Wide Web, search engines were designed to traverse the web and find documents, provided the user knew the exact name of the document. Soon, the number of people who had access to the internet increased, due to which there was a drastic increase in the number of web pages. Over the next few years, rapid improvements were made to the way that search engines functioned by the design and implementation of better search techniques. Eventually, designers of search engines figured out that users were not looking for the most number of results for their search, but were looking for the most relevant results. The focus then shifted to designing search engines that factored in result relevance for a search. This led to the increase in the accuracy of search engine results. Ultimately, the world of search engines turned into a competitive space with a need for monetary gain from search, and that is where we are at today.
The Visual Map
The purpose and function of each search engine was unique and had a linear progression in terms of technological advancement. By mapping the data, we wanted to show the story that emerged from our research. For the form of the visual map, we drew inspiration from the basic use of search engine — to traverse the “web”. The web-like visual map plots the purpose and function of each search engine. It indicates the year and setting of design of the search engines, and also depicts which ones are present today.
Link to the designed narrative and map
Co Authors : Neha Shenoy, Priya Sharma, Sakshi
