Web Masters

The first truly global, publicly available, and reliable search engine wasn't Google. It was AltaVista. And the man who built it wasn't trying to create a billion dollar startup. He was just trying to help people find stuff on the Internet. This is his story.

Show Notes

On July 4th weekend of 1995, Louis Monier deployed a spider across the Internet to search for and catalog all existing web pages. He chose July 4th weekend because he was worried that his spider might break the Internet. And, to be fair, it actually did... at least for New Zealand. As in the entire country of New Zealand.

That initial crawl helped Monier develop the index that would eventually become AltaVista, the world'd leader in web search years before anyone would be using "google" as a verb.

This episode of Web Masters features host Aaron Dinin having a conversation with Louis as he shares the story of AltaVista in his own words and gives some incredible insights into what the earliest days of the Web were like.

For a complete transcript of the episode, click here.


What is Web Masters?

Web Masters is an original podcast that explores the history of the Internet through the stories of some of its most important innovators. In each episode, host Aaron Dinin, a serial entrepreneur and digital media scholar, talks with Internet entrepreneurs who created important websites, tools, services, and features. Some are hugely popular, some you’ve never heard of, and all of them have impacted everything you do online. You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how the Internet has enabled -- and continues to create -- some of the greatest business opportunities in history from the people who have proven they know how to build successful Internet businesses.