From Archie to Google: Canada’s Role in Search Engine History

Discover how a McGill University breakthrough paved the way for modern search engines and put Canada on the map of internet technology

Jan 10, 2025

Canadian Achievements in Science and Technology Week - Day 5

*Image attribution: The Dubnob, CC BY-SA 4.0*

Did you know that Canada played a huge part in shaping the way we search for information on the internet?

It all goes back to the early 1990s, before Google, before Yahoo, and before most people even had an email address. The story begins at McGill University in Montreal, where a graduate student named Alan Emtage invented something called “Archie.” If you’re thinking that name sounds close to “archive,” you’re on the right track. The creators dropped the letter “v” to make it short, catchy, and easy to remember.

The Early Internet Landscape

Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the internet was a far cry from what you see and use today.

Most people accessed information through text-based interfaces and dial-up connections. File sharing often happened on FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers, which let you upload and download files. But there was no centralized list to tell you which files were stored on which server. If you wanted a software package or a piece of research data, you either had to know exactly where it was, or spend hours browsing directories. It was like wandering in a giant library without a catalogue.

To make matters worse, dial-up modems were incredibly slow—often operating at speeds that would make you cringe today.

And if you tried to download anything large, you risked tying up your phone line for hours. For the average user, finding a single file could feel like solving a puzzle without any clues. That’s where Alan Emtage’s bright idea came in.

Enter Alan Emtage at McGill

Alan Emtage worked as a systems administrator at McGill University’s School of Computer Science.

In that role, he was responsible for helping people find software and data on the early internet. But with so many scattered FTP servers, the task grew more frustrating every day. So Emtage decided to automate it.

Working with two fellow McGill contributors, Bill Heelan and Peter Deutsch, he developed a tool that would connect to these FTP servers, gather the names of available files, and store them in a searchable database. He named it “Archie.”

This might sound basic now, but in 1990, it was groundbreaking. Before Archie, there was no easy way to search the internet at all.

How Archie Worked

Indexing:
- Archie regularly scanned public FTP servers, collected file names, and built a list of these filenames in a central database.
Searching:
- Users could then connect to Archie’s database and type in a keyword.
- Archie would look for filenames that matched the keyword and return a list of possible downloads.
Focus on Filenames:
- Importantly, Archie did not index the contents of the files—only the filenames.
- That meant you needed to have a general idea of what the file might be named.
Downloading:
- If you saw something you wanted, you’d copy the FTP link from Archie’s results, open your own FTP client, and get the file.

Although primitive by today’s standards, this was a huge leap forward.

Suddenly, if you needed a specific piece of software or an academic paper, you didn’t have to guess which server might have it. You could just type in a few letters, check the list, and go straight to the right place.

Challenges Before Archie

If you’re trying to picture the difference Archie made, consider the issues people faced beforehand:

No Central Index:
- Everyone basically had to rely on word of mouth, random luck, or old text files listing servers.
Slow Speeds:
- Even if you found the right server, you’d have to wait ages for a directory listing to load.
Exact URLs:
- In many cases, you needed the exact location of a file, which meant memorizing long, clunky addresses.
Limited Tools:
- Graphical web browsers like Mosaic or Netscape Navigator weren’t widely used yet, so everything was text-based.

By giving users a searchable index, Archie made the early internet less overwhelming.

It was also a big reason McGill University became a hotspot for early internet traffic. Some estimates say that at its peak, Archie accounted for up to half the internet traffic in Montreal.

The Ripple Effect

Archie inspired a string of other early internet search tools. Soon after Archie, similar indexing services popped up, including “Veronica” and “Jughead” (these were cleverly named after characters from the Archie comics).

These systems searched Gopher servers, which allowed browsing of text-based menus across the internet. Before too long, more advanced engines appeared:

W3Catalog and Aliweb (1993):
- Early attempts at indexing the growing World Wide Web, not just FTP servers.
WebCrawler (1994):
- First full-text web search engine, meaning it didn’t just look at page titles—it indexed entire webpages.
Yahoo (1995):
- Started as a manually maintained directory of websites.
Google (1997):
- Revolutionized searching by ranking results based on how many other pages linked to them.

While Archie’s focus was on file names (not full-text searching), it proved the internet needed a way to help people find what they were looking for.

This idea—indexing and searching large amounts of online content—became the backbone of modern search engines.

Why Canada Remembers Archie

Even though Archie didn’t become a household name, it’s still a point of pride for Canada’s tech history.

Here are a few reasons why it matters:

Foundational Innovation:
- Archie showed that indexing and searching online files could be done on a large scale.
Academic Roots:
- Developed at McGill University, Archie is a prime example of how academic research in Canada can spark global change.
Global Recognition:
- At one point, Archie handled 50,000 queries a day—no small feat in an era when the internet itself was still a mystery to most people.
Influence on Modern Tools:
- Without Archie, we might not have seen the swift rise of other indexing projects that led to search giants like Google.

What Happened to Archie?

By the mid-1990s, the web had exploded in popularity.

Graphical browsers like Mosaic and Netscape Navigator made it easier for non-technical users to navigate websites. Archie, focused on FTP file names, struggled to keep up with the boom in web pages. Its creators tried to expand, forming a company called Bunyip Information Systems to commercialize the service. However, as the web grew, competing search engines emerged that went beyond file names and indexed full text.

People found more value in tools that could show them website content directly, not just file links.

Eventually, Archie’s development ended around 1996. A few legacy servers remained for historical interest, but the tool itself was outpaced by more versatile engines. Still, if you look at the genealogies of search technology, you’ll see Archie near the root of the tree.

Canadian Tech Legacy

Even though Archie is no longer in everyday use, its significance shouldn’t be overlooked.

Canada has a long track record of producing important technological innovations, from computer graphics to quantum computing. Archie is a reminder that homegrown Canadian talent can change how the world does things—sometimes without getting the attention it deserves.

Closing Thoughts

When you open Google, Bing, or any other search engine today, think back to the early days at McGill University.

Archie was the first big step toward taming the chaos of online information. It’s a story that deserves a spot in our collective memory, especially if you want to celebrate Canada’s achievements in science and technology.

That’s why I hope you’ll keep Archie in mind the next time you type a query into your browser’s search bar. A piece of Canadian history helped shape that tool you rely on every day.

Your Turn

Do you remember Archie? Or any of the other precursors to Google? Did you know that a Canadian at McGill helped pave the way for modern internet search tools? Take a sec. to type a comment and share your thoughts. I look forward to reading them all. I also respond to them all and appreciate the opportunity to have a conversation with you about the topics we cover each week.

And then, have a rad rest of your day!