A (Very) Brief History of Search

It wasn't long ago when the first Search Engine, "Archie", was created. Archie was so exciting that soon many others like it began to sprout up (Veronica, Jughead, et al.). As Search began to develop into its own industry, new Search Engines started to incorporate many new technologies in order to keep up with the scale and growth of the World Wide Web. New Search Engines like Excite and Lycos (developed by Carnegie Mellon University, who happens to be the alma mater of SEOEngine.com's President of Technology) brought new vector-based algorithms which greatly improved the quality of Search. One of those new Search Engines, Altavista, brought what was considered at the time to be almost unlimited bandwidth. Natural Language querying and many other advanced features added to the user experience.

However, the Web quickly became cluttered with syndications, spam, and irrelevant Webpages. The quality of Search quickly became an issue, and for companies like AltaVista -- the fear of "rigging" the search results scared many investors. Larry Page, student at Stanford University, began thinking of ways to improve search results which were quickly becoming useless. He invented PageRank™, which was simply a statistical "popularity contest". Using this algorithm, a new and improved scoring system was invented. Using this new scoring system, search results finally began to eliminate much of the syndication, spam, and irrelevant Webpages. After seeing the success Google had achieved in its climb to the top, Search Engine giants like Yahoo and Bing quickly developed similar algorithms to improve their search results.

Since the PageRank™ breakthrough, Search Engines have ruled the Internet. They are the hotel's front desk, the concierge if you will, of the Internet. They are the gatekeepers to millions of businesses and their various online revenue models. Thousands of software geeks have spent countless hours trying to "outsmart" these Search Engines and their complex algorithms. Tales of times when certain Websites were able to take advantage of a "loophole" to get to the top of major search results have been almost as abundant as the tales of when Search Engines, overnight, took that "loophole" away (and the businesses' revenue with it). Search Engines have been and will always be in a constant struggle between providing quality search results to their users, and eliminating tactics used by those who try to "game" the search results.

For over a decade now, Search Engines have largely kept their algorithms secret. It is no wonder -- the only thing standing in between quality and uselessness is the set of algorithms that determine the scoring of Webpages. Unfortunately for the Website owner, the only way to determine if their Website is "Search Engine Friendly" is to make a change and wait...for a move up or down in the search results. This can take months or years to finally nail down, and even now with competition so stiff that is often not enough. Search Engines became an imposing "black box" which nobody knew except a chosen few inside the Search Engine companies.

So software programs and tools were created to enable Website owners to quickly "scan" their Website and the corresponding Search Engine data to provide an analysis above and beyond what could be done manually by looking at search results and inspecting Webpages. This closed the gap considerably for Website owners and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professionals alike. Some of the more obvious errors began to be eliminated quickly. But Website owners and SEO professionals still were waiting months to see the results of their modifications. This created an artificial ceiling on the SEO/SEM Industry, because nobody could guarantee results, since not only did they still not know how things worked inside of a Search Engine, but they also did not know how long it would take given the lengthy feedback loop.

There was a huge vacuum in SEO to be filled. Who would be the first Search Engine to reveal just how it was scoring its Webpages, and how the internal workings of a Search Engine actually caused Websites to move up and down the search results? Search Engine giants Google, Bing, and Yahoo, with their conservative stockholders would seemingly never approve of such a move. Too much risk -- if the algorithms were revealed, they might be put out of existence by those who are constantly trying to "game" the system. Would the countless SEO Firms who produced thousands upon thousands of SEO Tools realize this opportunity? Most of the SEO Firms were run by sales-minded management -- after all, the SEO/SEM Industry was more "snake oil" than anything -- no guarantees, and no defined successes. Most of the software geniuses of the time were flocking to none other than the very Search Engines that had the capital, the opportunity, and the stability for these prospects to take advantage of. No, the SEO/SEM Industry was largely a sales industry.

Finally, in late 2006, this vacuum began to be filled by a singular idea: create a Search Engine in a way that let users see inside. As so it goes, SEOEngine.com began development on the first ever "Transparent" Search Engine, or SEO Engine™ in late 2006. It was the brain child of talented individuals from top universities such as Carnegie Mellon University and Cornell University, who sought out to provide a new layer of transparency in Search. SEOEngine.com began development on the project in late 2006 and publicly unveiled a new kind of Search Engine in early 2008. Essentially building a "window" to a Search Engine, the SEO Engine™ was the first of its kind to enable users to literally surf through the Internet through the eyes of a Search Engine. This Search Engine "cipher" enabled mortal humans to finally walk alongside the Larry Pages and the Sergey Brins (founders of Google) of the world -- leveling the playing field for everyone.

The SEO Engine™ is the World's First Transparent Search Engine™.