Google was not India’s first search engine, it was…, know how Indians searched the Web in the 90s

In the late 1990s, when a new computer and a dial-up connection first arrived in India(BHARAT)n homes, using the internet meant opening websites like Yahoo! and Rediff. These weren’t just search engines, they were the entry points to the online world. For many India(BHARAT)ns, the internet began and ended with Rediff.com. People created their first email accounts with Rediff Mail, checked the latest news and cricket scores, and even used the search bar on the site to look for information.

Those who wanted more information often used Yahoo!, which at that time was the largest portal in the world. Tech-savvy users, however, preferred AltaVista because it was considered better at handling searches.

Back then, connecting to the internet could take more than a minute. Because of the slow speed, people liked portals that offered as much information as possible on a single page, so they didn’t have to keep switching websites.

Early search engines often failed to give accurate results. Web pages were crowded with ads and banners, making it hard to find the information people actually wanted.

How Google changed everything

In the early 2000s, Google arrived with a completely different approach. Unlike the busy portals of the 1990s, Google focused only on search.

Google’s real strength was its search results. Its PageRank algorithm showed users exactly what they needed. For people at the time, it felt almost like magic.

Slowly, India(BHARAT)ns’ internet habits changed. Instead of starting their online journey on a portal, they began going directly to Google. Searching online became so closely linked with Google that “to search” simply became “to Google.”

Google may not have been India(BHARAT)’s first search engine, but it changed the way India(BHARAT)ns used the internet forever.