We brought back the internet's first search engine

We continue our quest to find and bring back Archie, the internet's first search engine.

Our second channel: @TheParallelPort

#internet #90s #search

Huge thanks to:

Kinissue for the incredible "The Realization"

Above music provided by Lofi Girl.

References:
Emtage, Alan. (2024). Interview conducted by Serial Port.
Friedlander, David & NASA/GSFC. (1996). Photo of Sun tape.
Smith, R. J. & Gibbs, M. (1993). Navigating the Internet. Sams.

[TAK-YON_]

even in the 1990s people couldn't resist letting us know they're an archuser

[LarenOz]

As an archivist this is a great demonstration of how easily digital history can be lost. Well done for the hard work of bringing it back.

[krazownik]

As a Pole I am not at all surprised that you found a copy of archie exactly here. I worked for a local government so I can guarantee that government offices (including educational institutions) here very often rely on a truly ancient software. Even during my work I was destroying old floppies containing sensitive data (EU regulations) and I stumbled upon many 5.25" floppies including one brand new sealed pack.

[Zizzily]

This is really amazing. Glad enough people came together that you were able to find Archie. This channel has gone from really interesting tech retrospectives to actually preserving, and even reviving, some of the ancient Internet and past technologies.

[inrit]

This kind of Internet history preservation is critical, thank you! And I'm delighted to see the Archie inventor, Alan Emtage, who I didn't know anything about but have enjoyed learning more about.

[mysterious_czrs]

My country never disappoints with keeping old stuff for ages. I was an it admin for a brief period at another university in Poland and they still had (in 2023) some itanium machines in storage just in case.

[juanstdio]

This is one of the videos that I truly like.. I was a volunteer of the Argentina's Computer museum ( Museo de informática de la República Argentina) and I truly understand the frustation and challenges to get back old data and binaries. Nothing more satisfactory to see it working again ... Amazing work folks!!

[Space_Reptile]

I hope you put those files you got for archie also on the Internet archive, it would be a shame to lose it again in the future

[lefthandedgal]

You Guys are shining the light on such interesting history of the early internet! I truly appreciate the work you put into it.

[VauxhaIIOpel]

As a Pole I am _very_ proud that we could help out in restoring a significant piece of history back to working order like this. Great video as always! Do you think that now the source code is available anyone's going to make homebrew updates to archie?

[fendant]

Another former Bunyip person here. So great that you got this found and an instance up and running!!

[SkyecraftGaming]

Using the code you guys provided me and a friend are working on building an archie server and a bbs

[ApoplecticDialectics]

This is fantastic. I have wanted to do this for years. Only one of these old services is left in the dust -- WAIS. Everything else I remember from my first shell in 1991, is up and running in some form now, thanks to your work on this. Serious hats off.

[NCommander]

I actually used archie back int he day, its' good to see put back online!

EDIT: It would be quite nice if we could get those source/binaries archived

[henrik]

Wow! Watching this gave me goosebumps! Thank you everyone who made this possible and for sharing the journey!
It made me feel so alive and remember how things were "in the old days" when nerds exchanged ideas and created things.

[toslaw]

Great to know the last copy came from my country. Good luck with your projects, I love your channel!

[MitchellWilsonII]

Oh wow! This is so nostalgic. I love the work you guys are doing! We need to get the community to spin up some more servers and get them talking!

[brett]

This is really fascinating stuff. Loving every minute of it. Thank you for the labor of love!

[apl]

In the mid 90s, when I first had the realization that the Internet might be a "big thing" - the three tools I remember were: Archie, Veronica and Gopher. None of them were "insanely great" - so it was inevitable that other tools and search algorithms took their place.

[defaultroute]

I love this, the feels hit hard. I connected to the Patreon until I couldn’t afford it. But I’m grateful you share your work freely. It really is amazing. Thank you.