# Google, 7 years ago **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 1, 2008, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975 "2008-10-01T06:59:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/1 "2008-10-01T06:59:44Z")
Google has put up their index from January 2001. [http://www.google.com/search2001.html](http://www.google.com/search2001.html) Take a look at the world of the past, as seen by Google. (Apologies if this was already posted; search is acting odd for me. Maybe I’m getting the SDMB from 2001.) Today [“Barack Hussein Obama”](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=%22Barack+Hussein+Obama%22&hl=en&btnG=Search) gets 800,000 hits. Back then; none. Leaving out his middle name gets 771. While the first hit matches some teenager, the second hit for [Paris Hilton](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=%22paris+hilton%22&hl=en&btnG=Search) is about a hotel in France. This one is interesting: [saddam hussein osama bin laden](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=saddam+hussein+osama+bin+laden&hl=en&btnG=Search) Some of you may have known about this already, but the last excerpt from this search looks amusingly anachronistic: [iPhone](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=iphone&hl=en&btnG=Search) **iPhone** The revolutionary iPhone is a fully integrated telephone and Internet device with a built-in touch screen to bring the world of the Internet into your home What else can be found back then? ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/2 "2008-10-01T07:13:48Z")
[2,610 results](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=sarah+palin&hl=en) [1,670 results](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=al+qaeda&hl=en) [61 results](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=shia+labeouf&hl=en) My, how times change. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/3 "2008-10-01T14:43:39Z")
For you Canadians: - The first result for \*Stephen Harper \*isn’t even the man himself. He’s only 5th, as head of the National Citizens’ Coalition. He had previously been a Reform MP but had not run in 1997. - _Jack Layton_ appears as a Toronto city councillor. - _Stéphane Dion_ is thoroughly indexed as minister of intergovernmental affairs. - _Gilles Duceppe_ was already Bloc leader. - _Elizabeth May_ – the only relevant first-page result is number 6. - _Michaëlle Jean_ appears as an award-winning CBC journalist in the first six links. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/4 "2008-10-01T15:04:52Z")
I searched for Google itself and found the first link from a media site: [an article in Forbes about an upstart search company](http://www.forbes.com/2000/05/02/feat.html) taking on the big boys like Yahoo! It was very positive, but a bit pie-in-the-sky - How was this company ever going to make a profit? No one back then had a clue. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/5 "2008-10-01T15:16:20Z")
My first complaint about the internet was that it was shallow and broad, and that searxching for _Dunkleosteus_\* didn’t get many hits. That was before 2001, when this index dates from. So I checked again. _Dunkleosteus_ then got 406 hits, which is more than I got the first time I searched it. Today on Google, it gets ten times as many – 4.040. So there’s improvement in the internet. On the other hand, typing in my last name and ny book title got 130 hits then, and only 745 hits now. Sigh. - _Dunkleosteus_ is the current name for the creepy Paleozoic “armored fish” with the staple-remover jaws that used to be called _Deinichthys_. I really wanted to get some information about it, but back then the internet wasn’t much of a resource for this kind of thing, and it was much easier to find info on starlets. Hence my comment. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/6 "2008-10-01T15:16:35Z")
This is surprisingly fascinating! I searched for **“2008 election”** and found the first hit a 2001 report on a plan from the National Association of Secretaries of State for revising the primary process to prevent “frontloading” caused by states moving their primaries up. Aparently some people frontloading might cause problems. Ha! Other links include editorials speculating that if the electorate hasn’t turned blue by 2004 it certainly will have by 2008, and that Al Gore will be perfectly poised to run again in 2008 if Bush wins a second term. ---
**Author:** ![MissMossie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@MissMossie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissMossie)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/7 "2008-10-01T15:21:53Z")
_September 11_ is suddenly just another again. How nice. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/8 "2008-10-01T15:24:11Z")
On a real name vanity search, in 2001 I was at the bottom of page 19, listed as a member of a public commission I belonged to at the time. Today, I’ve climbed to the middle of page 8, quoted in a local paper. In ten years, when I _ **Supreme Ruler** _, I damn well better be # 1 ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/9 "2008-10-01T15:26:46Z")
I did a search for my wife’s name, and came up with 6 hits in 2001, all her. She has just 9 hits now, again all her (she has a very unusual first name). There were about 600 hits in 2001 for my real name, and the first was me. Now, there are about 46,000 hits, and the first four are for someone now more famous than me. (He even has a Wikipedia article about him). He did have a Web presence back then, but it was much smaller. ---
**Author:** ![nd\_n8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/439d5e/32.png) [@nd\_n8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nd_n8)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/10 "2008-10-01T15:28:20Z")
[Here’s a little history for ya, bub…](http://web.archive.org/web/19970114020726/www.straightdope.com/otheroutlets/aolpitch.html) Because I’m not a Rickroller (but I do play one on TV) I’ll say it’s a link to an 11 year old Straight Dope page. Oh yeah, that’s right, AOL dayz in da’ house. No, really, it’s kind of cool to see what changes have been made and to think about how things worked back then versus today. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/11 "2008-10-01T15:29:16Z")
Xbox: > [@](#): > > Are you ready for the Xbox? Microsoft is preparing to unleash its powerful new console next year and we’re ready to cover every delicious moment. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/12 "2008-10-01T15:32:29Z")
[Sarah Palin](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=sarah+palin&hl=en&btnG=Search) doesn’t bring up anything related to the Alaska governor. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/13 "2008-10-01T15:53:01Z")
Try googling “9/11”. The database must be from before September 11 of that year. A happier time. ETA - the site that says “REMEMBER 9-11” also says it’s: > [@](#): > > … the date when Dr. Laura makes her TV début. I know I’LL be watching! ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/14 "2008-10-01T16:02:49Z")
[“Katrina was a short-lived tropical storm.”](http://www.disastercenter.com/hurrick9.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/15 "2008-10-01T16:20:23Z")
I’ve grown in notoriety! In 2001, my name produced all of two results, both chess-related (DWZ-evaluations), now I get a whooping seven hits – five are DWZ-evaluations again, which is somewhat odd since I must’ve quit playing tournaments around 2001, one is a short story published in an obscure magazine nobody reads, and one is a facebook profile of a friend of mine (which seems somewhat odd, I didn’t think those were google indexed). So yeah, fame and fortune, I have not. I wonder what my 2001 self would think of this, but unfortunately, noone’s saved him. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Bobotheoptimist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/919ad9/32.png) [@Bobotheoptimist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bobotheoptimist)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/16 "2008-10-01T16:50:38Z")
Vanity search in '01 had 96 hits, my home page was 2nd. '08 has 1280 and my home page is 10th (full name in quotes had 2 hits in 01 and 3 in 08, all from some genealogies) My company had 76,500 in '01 5,910,000 in '08 ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/17 "2008-10-01T17:35:29Z")
In 2001 I’m a Google ninja. 🙂 Closest I get is a hit on a genealogy website for my great-great-great-great-great-grandmother near the bottom of Page 1. Of course, I’m still a Google ninja for the most part… as far as they’re concerned, the highest I rate is page 4, and those matches are my long-defunct Tripod page (which, oddly enough, probably was last updated around 1999) and an archived newsgroup posting from 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/18 "2008-10-01T19:15:23Z")
Wow, I googled my “Firstname Lastname” and it come up #1 both in 2001 and today! I’ve got some pretty good SEO skillz!! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/19 "2008-10-01T19:21:18Z")
> [@dalej42](#): > > [Sarah Palin](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=sarah+palin&hl=en&btnG=Search) doesn’t bring up anything related to the Alaska governor. Try “[Sarah Palin Wasilla](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?hl=en&q=Sarah+Palin+Wasilla&btnG=Google+Search)” instead. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2008, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975/20 "2008-10-01T19:23:31Z")
Interesting that it’s not yet just “Google,” but “ **Google!** ” [facebook](http://www.google.com/search2001/search?q=facebook&hl=en&safe=off&sa=N&btnG=Search) gets 1,830 hits. Evidently it’s a student directory at Harvard. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-7-years-ago/465975.md?page=2)