
Ask HN: What was the internet like before search engines? - tarikozket
I believe search engines have changed the way we understand the internet: you ask something and you get something immediately.<p>What was the experience like before search engines? Does anyone have any stories?
======
samstave
Imagine going down a Wikipedia hole where you're just clicking through a
random path of links..

I kind of recall the mid 90s like that - while there were search engines, like
lycos, AV etc.. for those who were early teens and not in a university
exposure to word of mouth of what to check out could be more limited...

But curiosity always finds a way.

------
mpb
I'm a bit too young to have been online before search engines, but I do
remember a time before search engines were generally useful.

Portals (Kind of like a human curated search engine), and bookmarking was way
more important back then.

I also remember the local Library having (Pulp) books that featured
interesting websites to visit.

------
mkempe
There was a web page related to Mosaic that would list each day all newly
created websites, maybe 5-10 of them. They had a form where website creators
could submit their new domain/URL.

It took less time to read than looking at a daily facebook or twitter
"newsfeed" \-- and it was much more arresting.

~~~
tarikozket
So it was something similar to today's ProductHunt?

------
smt88
Are you asking about the Internet or the World Wide Web? The first search
engine predates the Web. Anything remotely like the Web you know today has
always had search engines.

