Last updated on September 6th, 2017
Welcome to SEO Advantage’s Trivia feature Friday, where we discuss, dissect and comment on the internet and marketing, and how the two intertwine.
Most of the search engines we know today launched with other names. Which of the following was not an early name for a major search engine?
- A. MSN Search
- B. Ask Jeeves
- C. Backrub
- D. Ben and Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web
(See answer below)
This may be one of the easiest questions yet for SEO Advantage’s Trivia Feature—especially since two of the search engine names are so recognizable and the third (and the obvious answer) is quite recognizable as well.
Let’s break it down by search engine. MSN Search has seen quite an evolution to Windows Live and now to Bing, as we currently know it. Ask Jeeves is a little easier. They just dropped the “Jeeves” from their name and now go by Ask.
The third search engine is a little trickier. Once upon a time, Google was known as Backrub. It was called this because in the beginning Google was compromised of an underlying algorithm for counting the backlinks the website earned. This product was known as BackRub for a year and the logo featured a scanned image of one of the developer’s hands. After the year was up, the name was changed to the Google Search Engine.
When Yahoo got started, it was actually known as Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web, not “Ben and Jerry’s”—those guys make delicious ice cream in Vermont.
Search engines are an integral aspect of SEO (search engine optimization) as this is where most data is collected. For this reason, it is good to know where the search engines we use came from. Here at SEO Advantage, we work hard to make sure you have this kind of information and more by regularly updating our blog and knowledge center. Stay tuned for more fun trivia!
(Answer: D)