What just happened? As Google uses generative AI and other features to change how users search the internet, many have expressed the desire to turn back the clock on search engines. Thanks to a YouTube channel, users can experience the original search engine, which provides a portal to the internet before the World Wide Web.
The operators of the website Serial Port have recently revived Archie, the internet's first search engine. Its FTP search and indexing functions are available to the public again after languishing in obscurity for years.
Currently, the tool only hosts one server compared to the many that existed decades ago, but users can find and download almost 30,000 files from anonymous FTP sites. Serial Port also hosts Archie's files and source code to help ensure this important piece of internet history isn't lost again. Finding and rebuilding the ancient search engine took months of detective work.
McGill University systems engineer Alan Emtage developed Archie in 1989 to facilitate finding and indexing files on the then-chaotic early internet. Before the World Wide Web emerged, the Internet largely consisted of FTP servers from which users could fetch files, which required knowing the exact names of files and servers. Because no unified FTP directory existed, such information could be difficult to acquire, raising concerns that navigating the internet could become increasingly troublesome.
Within months of Archie's initial debut, it became so popular that its use comprised half of Canada's internet traffic. Throughout the early 1990s, Archie became a ubiquitous tool for FTP users who transferred data between numerous servers worldwide.
Also read: New study confirms the obvious, search results are only getting worse
However, its use declined after the mid-90s with the emergence of the World Wide Web and a new generation of search engines like Alta Vista, Yahoo, and Google. The final version of Archie, version 3.5, was released in 1996. Development ceased in the late 90s, and Bunyip Information Systems – the company Emtage co-founded to build and license Archie – dissolved in 2003.
By the time Serial Port began its search, it seemed as if every known Archie server had shut down, and the source code proved elusive. Eventually, it emerged that the University of Warsaw in Poland had maintained an Archie server for educational reasons until 2023 and still had the source for the version 3.5 beta.
This was just enough for Serial Port to rebuild the historic search engine and host a new server. Although FTP is fading from the modern internet, some may still find it useful for downloading specific files without needing to browse websites. Serial Port's FTP hyperlinks make the process faster than when Archie originally debuted.