The birth of Internet and World Wide Web created a need for search tools to organize and catalog the many websites found therein. As new search tools developed, so did the desire to rank at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs). Soon webmasters began to study how to construct and promote their websites to achieve superior rankings on the SERPs. This activity dawned the birth of search engine optimization (SEO). With SEO was eventually born other concepts like search engine marketing (SEM) and Internet marketing. This article explores the historical roots of SEO and defines the difference between SEO, SEM and Internet marketing.
Short history of early search engines on The History of SEO website including Excite, Yahoo!, WebCrawler, Lycos, Infoseek, AltaVista, Inktomi, Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN Search, Overture, and AllTheWeb.
The birth of the Internet and World Wide Web spawned new terms in our vocabulary. One such term is “search engine.” No longer are engines just mechanical devices placed in vehicles and other pieces of machinery. Today, engines are also related to searching the many locations of content on the Internet. This article explains what search engines are, as well as crawlers, spiders, and robots. Information is provided concerning search engines and their relation to search engine results.
