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Google's Past Homepage

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the call-huey-lewis-and-go-back-in-time dept.

kreativemind writes "I took a peek at WayBackMachine.com and found Google's first website. This was very interesting as I also discovered the founders (Larry & Sergey) eGroups board where they wrote about Google's startup site. Also found the "We Moved" site from Stanford."

38 of 237 comments (clear)

  1. Less evil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I can't believe much less evil Google looked back then...

    1. Re:Less evil by eobanb · · Score: 5, Funny

      Check out what slashdot looked like back then!!

      --

      Take off every sig. For great justice.

    2. Re:Less evil by MoogMan · · Score: 4, Interesting

      http://web.archive.org/web/19971221012817/http://s lashdot.org/

      Well, it renders better in firefox ;)

  2. Back then... by datastalker · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the site itself was Beta!

    Good to see that they've not changed their processes... :)

    --
    Find out about the Lexus Rx400h Hybrid!
    1. Re:Back then... by Slack3r78 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think the most interesting thing about this is how similar the original page is to today's Google. Guess it goes to show they really hit on the right thing pretty early on as far as the site's interface goes.

    2. Re:Back then... by Xeo+024 · · Score: 4, Informative
      Exactly.
      The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn't know HTML and just wanted a quick interface.
      - Source

      Here is the /. article that links to that blog.

  3. ... and? by Leroy+Brown · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... and?

  4. Linux Search by MynockGuano · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Interesting to see that they had a "Linux Search" on their front page even then. Cool!

  5. Craig Silverstein by kevin_conaway · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Whatever happened to him? In the early days, he seemed to be a big part of the company and then he just sort of dropped off the face of the (Google) earth. Anyone know the story?

    1. Re:Craig Silverstein by STrinity · · Score: 4, Funny

      He was beta-testing how the spiders handle robots.txt files and accidently made Google think he didn't exist. And now he doesn't.

      --
      Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
  6. Google's first website by Bob+Cat+-+NYMPHS · · Score: 4, Funny

    Damn thing is still in beta!

    --
    The latest Slashdot meme.
  7. Re:Um... by Reignking · · Score: 5, Funny

    a) it uses the word Google
    b) to annoy the hell out of us
    c) slow news day
    d) A & B

    If you chose D, you win!

    --
    One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
  8. slashdotted by uberjoe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Think there's a google cache of this?

    --

    The days of the digital watch are numbered.

  9. Wow, getting featured on the front page is easy by vortigern00 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Gee, If I had known this was all you had to do to get credit for a posting on slashdot I'd have submitted this a year ago.

    1. Re:Wow, getting featured on the front page is easy by MyLongNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm going to submit Google's CURRENT webpage.

      Wanna take bets on whether it gets posted?

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  10. Interestingly enough... by Nomihn0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Interestingly enough, The WayBack Machine can can also be used to find when Slashdot last posted this story.

    1. Re:Interestingly enough... by mopslik · · Score: 5, Funny

      The WayBack Machine can can also be used to find when Slashdot last posted this story.

      Tomorrow?

  11. News?? by pete19 · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Bah... I saw that in 1998...

    Does everything related to Google get on the frontpage now?

    --
    There is nothing more practical than a good abstract theory.
    1. Re:News?? by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Does everything related to Google get on the frontpage now?

      No, it doesn't. I discovered a strange fluke and possible flaw in Pagerank, submitted it here, and it was rejected.

      --
      This space available.
  12. Of course... by youknowmewell · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because Slashdot doesn't have enough Google stories as it is.

  13. While we're talking about random browsing... by GillBates0 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I took a peek at WayBackMachine.com and found Slashdot's pages since 1997. Did this way way back....but if somebody can get a story about it, the least I can hope for is a +5 Interesting.

    1997
    1998
    1999
    2000

    Take a look once their server comes up.

    (on a side note, Slashcode interprets embedded http://links/ (as in : http://web.archive.org/web/20000301205131/http://w ww.slashdot.org/ incorrectly).

    --
    An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
  14. Even earlier evidence of Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://fury.com/images/weblog/google_circa_1960.jp g

  15. server too busy by digitaldc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Network Error (tcp_error)
    A communication error occurred: "" The Web Server may be down, too busy, or just doesn't care preventing it from responding to requests. You may wish to try again at a later time, or you can give up completely and go to msn search, it works better than google.
    For assistance, contact your network support team, if you don't have a support team, hire one! They need jobs and they are fun to bring to tech conventions and have cool toys on their desks.

    --
    He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
  16. Mirrors by sucker_muts · · Score: 4, Informative

    Google's first websitehttp://mirrordot.org/stories/022b166f579c51 7f9aa710acad5f0953/index.html
    "We Moved"http://mirrordot.org/stories/0b37fdb012aef73 f90d560ad8dbc5d78/index.html

    --
    Dependency hell? => /bin/there/done/that
  17. This is news? by nick8325 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Stop the presses! A Slashdot reader has discovered archive.org!

  18. I Still Remember by rAiNsT0rm · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Typing google.stanford.edu to search, and how I couldn't convince anyone that it was better than Altavista.

    Everyone thought "google" was a dumb name for the site, now it's a figure of speech

    I just wish my search results were as good as they were in the wayback machine, now people prey on google's spidering and ranking so now I have to wade through the same detritus that I began using google to avoid.

    --
    http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
    1. Re:I Still Remember by baadger · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Still there may be hope on the horizon.

      "In fact generally we focus on the next generation of Google's crawling and indexing technology. We've got hard-core statisticians pondering how to measure search quality more accurately, and a slightly nutty project that we think might revolutionize the way that we organize and search structured information." ...and of course their aquisition of TrustRank.

  19. Re:hhmm.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The way back machine is always slow. Time travel takes a lot of CPU cycles you know.

  20. Wooyay! by 88NoSoup4U88 · · Score: 3, Funny
    We slashdotted Google !

    Yes,yes, it's the wayback-machine... But come on !

    We slashdotted Google !

  21. Re:Larry and WHO? by nick8325 · · Score: 3, Informative

    No, it's not.

    http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html

  22. Spoiler... by rev0102 · · Score: 5, Funny
    [spoiler]
    <HTML>
    <HEAD>
    <BASE HREF="http://www.google.com/">

    <TITLE>Google!</ TITLE>
    </HEAD>

    <BODY bgcolor=#FFFFFF background=alpha.jpg>

    <FORM method=GET action=/search>
    <CENTER>
    <IMG src=google.jpg width=351 height=113 alt=Google!>
    </CENTER>

    <CENTER>
    <table border=0 width=90%>

    <tr>
    <td bgcolor=#EEEEEE colspan=3>
    <CENTER>
    Search the web using Google! <br>
    <INPUT type=text name=q value="" size=40><BR>
    <INPUT type=submit value="Google Search">
    <INPUT type=submit name=sa value="I'm feeling lucky"><br>
    </CENTER>
    </FORM>
    <FORM method=GET action=http://www.findmail.com/cgi-bin/subscribe.p y>
    </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    <td width=37% bgcolor=#7EE5DA><center>
    Special Searches<br>

    <A HREF="/stanford">Stanford Search</A><br>
    <A HREF="/linux">Linux Search</A><br>
    </center>
    </td>
    <td bgcolor=#70CCC2>
    <CENTER>
    <FONT size=-1>
    <A HREF="help.html">Help!</A> <br>
    <A HREF="about.html">About Google!</A> <br>
    <A HREF="company.html">Company Info</A> <br>

    <A HREF="stickers.html">Google! Logos</A> <br>
    </FONT>
    </CENTER>
    </td>
    <td align=right bgcolor=#62B3AA>
    <CENTER>
    <FONT size=-1>
    Get Google! <br> updates monthly: <br>
    <INPUT type=hidden name=listname value=google-friends>
    <INPUT type=text name=emailaddr value="your e-mail"> <br>
    <INPUT type=submit name=SubmitAction value="Subscribe">

    &nbsp;&nbsp
    <FONT SIZE=-1><A HREF="http://www.findmail.com/list/google-friends/ ">Archive</A></FONT>
    </FONT>
    </CENTER>
    </td>

    </table>
    </CENTER>

    <p>
    <CENTER><FONT SIZE=-1>Copyright &copy;1998 Google Inc.</FONT></CENTER>
    </FORM>

    </BODY>
    </HTML>
  23. Another important piece of Google history by Peter+Cooper · · Score: 3, Funny

    Sergey Brin in drag during his Stanford days!

    Okay, now I've just signed away my opportunity to work for Google, ever.

  24. Wow - Google was positively psychic back then by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I typed Google into the old Google search box and it found the new Google! Scary...

  25. The Googles, They Do Nothing! by WombatControl · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wow, between the unquoted attributes, the tables, and the capitalized tags, that drives the Crazy Pedantic Web Standards Designer part of me up a bloody wall...

  26. Not quite correct by baadger · · Score: 5, Informative

    "I took a peek at WayBackMachine.com and found Google's first website."

    Technically this is incorrect, the first 'Google website' is archived under google.standford.edu. Although obviously he meant the first Google.com webpage, I thought i'd post it for the sake of enjoyment I get from being annoying.

    Don't miss the pictures and stats of Google hardware, or Sergey's and Larry's Stanford pages either for those who haven't seen it all before.

  27. archive.org is slow by dustinbarbour · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've got an idea.. Since Google wants to be the company to index all of the world's information, why dont't they start their own archive service? Perhaps archive.google.com? I'm sure they could manage all of it and make it all a bit speedier. J00' Kn0w?!

    --
    What is your penile percentile?
  28. Re:Um... by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "Wow? Why is this on the front page?"

    For the same reason that Mozilla used to get front page whenever a minor update was made to it. It involved offering reach-arounds, but I won't name names for fear of mod-retaliation.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  29. You're right by Neurotoxic666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, you just made me realise something.

    When you can't find something on Google, I mean REALLY CAN'T find it? After you've tried AGAIN 3-4 times with different words, will you really look elsewhere or just accept the fact that what you're looking for does not exist, because Google says so? I'm sure I'm not the only one doing the latter....

    --
    You are more than the sum of what you consume. Desire is not an occupation.