YouTubers get long-lost classic search engine Archie back working – IT Pro – .Geeks

A younger reader won’t easily think of anything other than Google and Bing when looking at search engines, maybe Yandex, or some old classics like Altavista or AskJeeves. But not for Archie, which was the first search engine in 1990. YouTubers from the serial port have now found the long-lost search engine and got it working again.

YouTube channel serial port Describes in the video Search for “the last remaining clone of Archie”. The search engine became avant la lettertre It was officially released in September 1990. A “search engine” in this context is a completely different concept than we know it now. Archie’s primary goal was to search public FTP servers. At the time, this was one of the most popular ways to share files and information. This fell out of favor in later years, especially with the advent of “real” Gopher-based search engines that could also search more web pages, but the serial port says it wants to “honor the legacy of FTP.”

in Previous video The serial port had already researched the origins of the search engine, as well as what eventually happened to it. The original copies of the instrument are no longer available; There was supposed to be a bar at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, but it turns out it’s no longer in operation.

The filmmakers say they had been searching for a working version for “several months.” Additionally, they came across old forums and archives through a Dutch developer, among others, though didn’t find anything there either. Eventually, the YouTubers were able to contact a Polish system administrator who still had a link to the current Archie server, which still contained a backup of the original source code. And so they knew, with some deception, To place a working copy online. Not on an anonymous FTP server, but simply on the World Wide Web. This seems to save a piece of Internet history. The files are now available as well Downloadable – So be sure to download a copy quickly, so that the search is not repeated after thirty years.