SEO History
Learn how search evolved—from AltaVista to AI.
I had the pleasure of speaking at the West Linn Historical Society’s Ignite event, where I shared a whirlwind tour through the last 30 years of search history.
The Ignite format is no joke—just five minutes, with 20 auto-advancing slides — and zero room for rambling. It challenged me to distill the biggest milestones into bite-sized moments and focus on what mattered most.
So, here it is—my full script: 1,034 words that capture the evolution of search — from dusty reference books, to AI-driven everything.
Enjoy the ride!
If you’re Gen X or older, you may remember researching school projects at the library. We actually had to leave the house back then to find information! Our search tools were card catalogs, microfiche, and massive, dusty reference books. Research wasn’t instant – it demanded time and patience, and there were no quick answers.
Then, in 1994, everything changed. Those dusty reference books evolved into online directories—essentially giant lists of websites. Search behavior meant locating the category we wanted and clicking through multiple subcategory links. It wasn’t as complicated as it sounds because there were only about 10,000 sites online back then.
And then there was Yahoo! (remember their commercials? Yahooooooo!). Yahoo was Infoseek’s flashier cousin, with slick television campaigns and feature articles in Wired. Believe it or not, Yahoo was cool. They started their directory in 1994 and stayed prominent for years…until Google started messing with their market share. More on that later.
Now, here’s what both directories had in common—they learned how to transform search behavior into profits. Infoseek sold banner advertising that people would actually click on. Submitting to Yahoo’s Directory cost $299, and adult sites paid $600. Even back then, the engines learned how to monetize sin.
Speaking of money, you know those ads appearing on the right side of the search results? Those originated with a company called GoTo.com. Companies would “bid” on how much they’d pay to be in the #1 spot. I was convinced people wouldn’t click an ad. I was wrong. Pay-per-click search is a multibillion-dollar industry.
There were also early search engines from 1994-1998. They weren’t great – partly because the technology was new. And because of search engine optimizers like me (otherwise known as SEOs) who understood how to get their clients to the top of the results. These conditions meant a huge hole existed in the marketplace for a better search engine.
Enter Google, the company that promoted an easier search experience and better results. Google’s algorithm positioned a page based on content and incoming links — so it was harder (at first) for people like me to manipulate. The marketplace loved them, and Google captured about 60 percent of the search engine market share in 1999.
Even with Google’s “advanced” algorithm, positioning was still relatively simple. If you wanted to position for [red shoes], create a webpage using the keyword and ask people to link to you. That’s one reason why the writing was so bad back then – repeating the keyphrase usually helped the page get a better ranking.
It may seem like I’m talking about a lot of different search engines and directories—in fact, I’m even leaving some out (we miss you, Ask Jeeves). This chart, created by Bruce Clay, shows how convoluted the search landscape was in the early days. What people didn’t know is that Google fed results to many of the other search engines.
At about this time, Google became the 800-pound gorilla everyone loved but wanted to beat. They opened its campus during SEO conferences, bussing hundreds to Google’s campus for the Google Dance – where this shirt is from. Here I am, meeting Sergey Brin back in the day. I was blonde back then.
Side note: Yahoo passed on two opportunities to purchase Google—once in 1998 for 1 million and again in 2002 for 5 billion. Since Yahoo wouldn’t extend a purchase offer, it decided to extinguish its competition. That didn’t go well.
Yahoo broke up with Google in 2003 and launched its own search engine. It also purchased Overture (the old GoTo.com) and started serving ads next to its search results. Yahoo’s technology was cool—it showed personalized results based on people’s search history…prompting millions of searchers to discover private browsing.
By this time, Google knew so much about us that it started completing our searches. Google Suggest launched, showing a dropdown of related search terms that auto-populated every time someone did a search. To see it in action, type [When I jump I] into Google and see what results come up. You’re welcome.
One of Google’s smartest business moves was developing a centralized way for small business owners to manage their web presence and be found on a map. Google started the Google Local Business Center (what is currently Google Business) back in 2005. And yes, even back then, small business owners felt frustrated with Google and how it listed their businesses.
Cat video lovers celebrated when Google purchased YouTube in 2006 (yes, 19 years ago!). This was actually a big deal, as it meant average Internet speeds were finally fast enough for video. After the acquisition, YouTube results started showing on Google’s search results page.
Microsoft had an identity crisis in the past. In 2006, they were known as MSN Search. They changed their name to Live and finally settled on Bing in 2009. It’s easy to snicker at Microsoft’s missteps, but their later investment in OpenAI, which owns ChatGPT, pushed Google into its current AI track.
For years, Google had over 90% of the search market share. Today, it’s 89%. That doesn’t seem like a big deal until you look at how search behavior drastically changed in November 2022 with ChatGPT. From there. Other tools like Perplexity and Claude hit the market, changing HOW we search every day.
Today, search behavior is paired with implementation—and most of it can be automated. We can ask GenAI to research, create an outline, and write a report. Instead of enjoying the thrill of finding the perfect link, GenAI offers summaries and a curated list of sites (optimized by people like me).
Although it seems easy to trust the robots, GenAI likes to make stuff up. They’ll even cite links that don’t exist. That’s why anything derived from AI is “trust, but verify.” Google has failed often over the years, but they’ve always tried to return the best, most accurate results for the user query.
Over my 25+ year career, I’ve seen search deeply transform how we find new information. My ask after today’s chat? Embrace curiosity over curated AI answers. Robots can be our friends, but part of the joy of discovering information is the curious, windy path we take to find the perfect answer for us.
Thank you.
Which blast-from-the-past slide was your favorite? Mine was the old conference write-up from Search Engine Strategies — it seems like a lifetime ago. Leave your comment below!
(And before you comment, “Hey, you forgot X, or you needed to talk about Y more…remember, I only had 20 slides and five minutes.) 😅
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