MetaCrawler

MetaCrawler was the first metasearch engine, originally developed in 1994 at the University of Washington by graduate student Erik Selberg and Professor Oren Etzioni as Erik Selberg's Ph.D. qualifying project.{{Cite web|url=https://tmt.knect365.com/iot-world-asia/speakers/erik-selberg|title=Erik Selberg IoT Conference Bio|access-date=2019-09-25}} Originally, it was created in order to provide a reliable abstraction layer to web search engine programs in order to study semantic structure on the World Wide Web. However, it was a useful service in its own right, and had a number of research challenges.

MetaCrawler was originally operating on four Digital Equipment Corporation AlphaStations{{Cite web|url=http://federatedsearchblog.com/2008/11/28/erik-selberg-federated-search-luminary-part-i/|title=Federated Search|website=federatedsearchblog.com|access-date=2019-01-29}} and processing several hundred thousand queries per day. This was starting to create significant bandwidth load at UW. It became clear that MetaCrawler needed to have some method of paying for the queries it was forwarding to the primary search engines. Some time after the search engine launched, NetBot, Inc., which was cofounded by Etzioni,{{Cite web|url=http://webdoc.gwdg.de/ebook/aw/1999/webcrawler/mailing-lists/robots/2081.html|title=Robots Mailing List Archive: The Metacrawler, Reborn|website=webdoc.gwdg.de|access-date=2019-01-29}} was initiated to commercialize MetaCrawler{{Cite web|url=http://www.prism-magazine.org/april/html/cover.html|title=ASEE PRISM - Apr 1999 - Cover Story - Building Strategic Partnerships|website=www.prism-magazine.org|access-date=2019-01-29|archive-date=2015-09-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150909082557/http://www.prism-magazine.org/april/html/cover.html|url-status=dead}} and three other UW programs: Ahoy! The HomePage Finder, Occam, and ShopBot. Ahoy! and Occam were never actually commercialized. NetBot then combined the core of MetaCrawler with ShopBot to create a meta-shopping website, Jango.{{Cite web|url=https://www.singlefeed.com/resources/enginehistory.php|title=Shopping Engine History - SingleFeed, Shopping Engines made easy|website=www.singlefeed.com|access-date=2019-01-29}}

MetaCrawler launched on July 7, 1995.{{Cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/Conferences/WWW4/Papers/169/Overview.html|title=Multi-Service Search and Comparison Using the MetaCrawler|website=www.w3.org|access-date=2019-02-12}}

File:Metacrawler screenshot 1996.png

As of late 1995, MetaCrawler logged over 7,000 search queries per week, and accessed six services: Galaxy, InfoSeek, Lycos, Open Text, WebCrawler and Yahoo.{{Cite web|url=https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~etzioni/papers/Overview.html|title=Multi-Service Search and Comparison Using the MetaCrawler|website=homes.cs.washington.edu|access-date=2019-01-29}} By late 1996, there were over 150,000 queries per day.{{Cite web|url=https://homes.cs.washington.edu/~etzioni/papers/ieee-metacrawler.html|title=The MetaCrawler Architecture for Resource Aggregation on the Web|website=homes.cs.washington.edu|access-date=2019-01-29}}

MetaCrawler's owners were unable to determine a reasonable business model, so in January 1997 they sold it to another Internet startup company, Go2Net,{{Cite web|url=http://webdoc.gwdg.de/ebook/aw/1999/webcrawler/mailing-lists/robots/2081.html|title=Robots Mailing List Archive: The Metacrawler, Reborn|website=webdoc.gwdg.de|access-date=2019-01-29}} in which Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen later invested a 54 percent stake.{{Cite web|url=https://money.cnn.com/1999/03/15/technology/go2net/|title=Paul Allen sets 54-percent stake in Go2Net - Mar. 15, 1999|website=money.cnn.com|access-date=2019-01-29}} Go2Net went public in April that year, registering on Nasdaq.{{Cite magazine|url=https://www.wired.com/1998/04/go2nets-low-overhead-plan/|title=Go2net's Low-Overhead Plan|last=Court|first=Randolph|date=1998-04-23|magazine=Wired|access-date=2019-01-29|issn=1059-1028}} MetaCrawler had about 30,000 daily visitors at the start of 1997, but by mid 1998 jumped to 275,000.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/1998/05/18/story4.html|title=O.P. Web site developer is Seattle-bound|last=King|first=Suzanne|website=American City Business Journals|access-date=2019-01-29}}

File:Metacrawler old logo.png

NetBot would eventually be purchased by Excite in October 1997 for $35 million, where Jango became part of the Excite Network Shopping Channel.{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnet.com/news/excite-to-buy-netbot/|title=Excite to buy NetBot|website=CNET|language=en|access-date=2019-01-29}} Both Selberg and Etzioni resumed working for UW until 1999, when they joined Go2Net for a year, quitting just prior to Go2Net's acquisition by InfoSpace, Inc. in July 2000 for $4.2 billion.{{Cite web|url=https://www.marketwatch.com/story/infospace-to-acquire-go2net|title=InfoSpace to acquire Go2Net|last=Francisco|first=August Cole, Bambi|website=MarketWatch|date=27 July 2000 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-29}} By that time, Go2Net had purchased another metasearch engine, Dogpile.{{Cite web|url=https://googlepress.blogspot.com/2000/01/google-added-to-go2nets-metacrawler-and.html|title=Google Added To Go2Net's MetaCrawler and Dogpile Metasearch Services – News announcements – News from Google – Google|website=googlepress.blogspot.com|access-date=2019-01-29}}

In 2014, MetaCrawler was merged into another one of InfoSpace's search engines, Zoo.com,{{Cite web|url=http://www.metacrawler.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101001213/http://www.metacrawler.com/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2014-01-01|title=MetaCrawler|date=2014-01-01|access-date=2019-01-29}} which was originally launched in 2006.{{Cite web|url=https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20061114005334/en/New-Kid-Friendly-Search-Engine-Zoo.com-Offers-Wealth|title=New Kid-Friendly Search Engine Zoo.com Offers Wealth of Information Without the Worry|date=2006-11-14|website=www.businesswire.com|language=en|access-date=2019-01-29}} The MetaCrawler domain at first redirected to Zoo.com,{{Cite web|url=https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/z/zoo.htm|title=What is Zoo?|website=www.computerhope.com|language=en|access-date=2019-01-29}}{{Cite web|url=http://mason.gmu.edu/~ebotts/507/module1.html|title=Module 1|website=mason.gmu.edu|access-date=2019-01-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126221503/http://mason.gmu.edu/~ebotts/507/module1.html|archive-date=2019-01-26|url-status=dead}} but was afterwards changed to redirect to msxml.excite.com, the search page for Excite, also operated by InfoSpace.{{Cite web|url=http://www.search-on.dk/soegemaskiner.html|title=Søgemaskiner - Search-on.dk JR Corp.|website=www.search-on.dk|access-date=2019-01-29}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.metacrawler.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101002606/http://www.metacrawler.com/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2016-01-01|title=MetaCrawler|access-date=2019-01-29}}

In July 2016, InfoSpace was sold by parent company Blucora to OpenMail for $45 million, putting MetaCrawler under the ownership of OpenMail.{{cite news|url=http://www.seattletimes.com/business/technology/blucora-to-sell-infospace-business-for-45-million/|title=Blucora to sell InfoSpace business for $45 million|date=July 5, 2016|work=Seattle Times}} OpenMail was later renamed System1.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2017/09/20/system1-raises-270-million-for-consumer-intent.html|title=System1 raises $270 million for 'consumer intent' advertising|work=L.A. Biz|access-date=2017-12-01}}

In 2017, MetaCrawler relaunched as its own search engine.{{Cite web|url=http://www.metacrawler.com/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403063154/http://www.metacrawler.com/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2017-04-03|title=MetaCrawler|date=2017-04-03|access-date=2019-01-29}}

• List of search engines
• WebCrawler
• InfoSpace
• Dogpile

{{reflist}}

• {{official website|http://www.metacrawler.com/}}

Category:Internet search engines

Category:Metasearch engines