BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

[email protected]

On Thu, 09 Mar 2017 14:26:35 -0500,
wrote:

On Thu, 9 Mar 2017 11:53:58 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

I forget what the "browser" was back then or even how it all worked.
I think it may have been Netscape Navigator. I recall "AltaVista" as
being the search engine.

===

Good old AltaVista. At one time it was arguably the best search
engine on the internet. I believe it was created by Digital Equipment
Corp but they were too dumb and inflexible to realize the value of
what they'd created. It could have saved their failing mini computer
business if they had known what to do with it.

IBM had the RETAIN system that was originally designed to search
maintenance databases but it became the search engine for NCIC, the
FBI database. I remember guys playing with it at the DC police HQ when
it was first released, during the LBJ administration. My tech
specialist typed in "Angela Davis" as a hoot. Ten minutes later, 3 FBI
agents were standing there asking where she was.