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- kevinrose, on 10/12/2007, -5/+80My favorite search engine for a long time.. I will forever remember the glory days of Altavista. RIP, you changed the world.
- TheWorkz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+79I will pour out some liquor for him tonight.. I used altavista as my default search engine back in 1995 thru 1997. R.I.P.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+76i went to the AltaVista site to see what kind of tribute they would have up for him.. nothing. How sad is that??
And they wonder why no one thinks of them when doing a search... they don't think of anyone else.
Rest in peace and thanks for your contribution to our lives. - norbiu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Why does Digg allow 11-year-old boys who don't know ***** about the past to register here?
- Zodzilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16*angry rant*
Sammy20,
One of the most difficult things to grasp in life is that heartless little ***** like you get to continue living heartless ***** lives when useful people such as Mr. Flaherty pass away with little to no reason at all. And don't think I'm making a snap judgement when calling you an *****, I've checked your other comments on other posts. Your comments have been negative dugg so many times, I can safely say that no one here cares what you have to say.
*end of angry rant*
That being said, it's really sad to see a web pioneer go. Alta Vista was a true gem during a time when search engines and the internet were in their infancy, and at least we can safely know that guys and girls like Mr. Flaherty will be written in history books when they look back at that time. Rest In Peace. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13If that's the first thing out of your mouth when people die, you're already dead inside.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Altavista was the best back in the day, Babelfish is still pretty good. Rest in peace man.
- domr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Absolutely. AV lead the way for the likes of Google. In the mid 90s we'd all have been worse off without it.
You have to wonder why Yahoo has never developed the brand, but left it hanging around to stagnate. - zentro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Ignorant prat.
AV was the best search engine by far back in its day. Who knows, without AV the founders of Google may not have been inspired to created an even better search engine. - rorrison, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Paul was a good friend in high school, but I've been so out of touch that it was only this past week reading a memorial that I learned about his link to Alta Vista. Remember the people you care about while they're still alive.
- saska, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8It is sobering to realize that we have now reached the point in the microhistory of the Internet when the true pioneers are beginning to leave us for good. AltaVista was a revolution that made Google possible, and Flaherty was a brilliant mind in the right place at the right time.
Here's to his enemies' enemies. - LexisNexis, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I love the audio search! RIP!
- serra, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Psst, we have a "reply" button now.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6RIP, i think altavista is my fist internet experience, and i searched for "nasa".
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Altavista was THE search engine before googles woobles and yahoos.
RIP Paul, you deserve it. - digdugdig, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I knew someone was going to say this, but come on, he was 42. He was a pioneer, for sure, but he wasn't old. You're (hopefully) not going to see all the net pioneers suddenly dying the next few years.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5R.I.P.
i wasnt even using the internet when altavista was big.
by the time i got old enough to understand things, google had become HUGE. - Tobey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I can't believe it. Kind of reminds you of how fragile life is, you know?
He will be sorely missed. - gekkokid, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7RIP Pioneer
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Mr. Flaherty will be missed. Alta Vista was the first search engine I ever used, before I even technically had an internet connection (getting to the web through Prodigy Classic). Maybe his search engine never reached the heights of Google, but I'm certain he wasn't done contributing to the world and had many more grand ideas for the future.
- charge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4He will be missed. I used to use Altavista exclusively. People would show me Google and I'd be like "nahh." It is depressing.. he was only 42?
- zentro, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4God, how old are you? I don't think 39 is "pretty old"...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Portuguese / Brazilian : http://www.htk.com.br/noticia.php?noticia=337
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http://www.htk.com.br/ - Pogue_Mahone, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Altavista was the first search engine I ever used while surfing the graphical web (oh, the happy days of lynx on my P133 and at the college computer lab). Its one of the major doors that opened a lot of people to the web. Altavista doesn't get credit for that pioneering these days, due to Google mania. But 20 years down the road when someone writes a book on the history of the internet, Altavista should have a chapter.
42 is such a tragic age to go at too. Far too young. 42 shouldn't even be the half way mark.
Best wishes to Paul's wife and family. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6"pretty old too (39)"
Gee, thanks. I'm almost 29 and knowing that only 39 is "pretty old" really makes me feel great about the future.. *sigh*. - volcompimp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4RIP... There would be no Asta (la) engine w/ out the Alta. Asta and hotbot were my favorites back in the day. I remember the days of just getting onto the internet and every page felt magical. I was really young back then but it changed my life.
Viva la Flaherty! - GhostFreeman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sad to hear the news. AV was king back in the day.
*does a 21 MicroVAX salute* - garrycam, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I fondly remember going to AltaVista on a daily basis for my search engine "fix". My way onto the fledgling Internet was something called "Internet-In-A-Box". At that time it was better than sliced bread and most importantly it got me on the Internet such as it was. I'm so sad to hear of Mr. Flaherty's death. I do know however, that his contributions will continue to be built upon. His dreams helped to bring us to where search engines are today and may very well be tomorrow. RIP
- jamms, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3my first internet experience was altavista live. using the free altavista isp. mopped the floor with yahoo's portal. ah, the fun times.
- briansalo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Altavista was the first and only search engine I used for the longest time until I started using the computers at school and they were all defaulted to google for search.
Back in the day, Altavista was sort of the Google of today (to a lesser extent obviously).
Google wasn't really there
Hotbot didn't work as well
Yahoo had too much stuff on their front page
AskJeeves covered pages with their frames
Dogpile did it all, but was just too slow
Altavista was plain, fast(ish) and down to what you needed....
R.I.P. guy, you made a mark in society; even if it's just a little one, you beat out billions of others on their 'things to do' list - scsikool, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It would be nice to see Google honor this pioneer in it's banner as it occasionally does with other events and holidays.
- chicagobiker, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4ROTFLOL!!11! So 39 is a pretty old dude huh? Damn, I'm over-the-hill and didn't even know it. I'm 38 and don't think I'm "old" at all.
Fatal heart attacks at 42 are rare and odd. There must have been some underlying medical reason (obesity, high cholesterol, un-checked high blood pressure, sleep apnea, bad diet, heart defect).
I wish the article would mention to some degree what was wrong. It's very disturbing when you hear of someone dying so young like that. - abbott75, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Notice that all 3 comments dugg by Kevin Rose have 65 diggs...
- karel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Back when I was in college, I used Alta vista exclusively. There was nothing better for finding what I needed. Such sad news, I send my condolences.
- Julz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Altavista is one of my favorite search engines, he was far to young to die. RIP Paul, thank you so much for your contribution.
- rabiddogma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3It's always shocking when someone not much older than yourself passes. And yes 42 is way too young.
Altavista was my favorite search for a long time too. I think they had the first language translator too. At least he left a good legacy, I hope he's remembered for it. - chicksdigme, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I loved Altavista. It was the king of search in the late 1990's.
Sad to know its founder is gone, esp so young. May he rest in peace. And best of luck to his family.
Dugg. - adimangla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Altavista was my first search engine and favorite till google arrived. R.I.P Mr Flaherty.
- yensed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Very sad. Way to young.. But we can all go on knowing he in Heaven implementing a search.R.I.P.
- cyssero, on 04/18/2009, -0/+2R.I.P.
First search engine I ever used. Sad to hear anyone go =/ - alski707, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2ahh, my first internet experance, siting down at a 486 in college, fireing up IE, and then turning to the assistant and saying "errr....so how do i actuley use the internet?", the reply was short: "altavista.com"
Thank you Paul Flaherty, Thanks for the memory, and RIP friend. - zoltan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2man... time flies
- abbott75, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Altavista was allways my number one... The last year or so I have been a Google man, but I still love Altavista
- Bonzodog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2He will be sadly missed. Truly one of the pioneers of the web, who realised it's real potential and then did something about it. I really believe that without Altavista, Google would have remained a pipedream.
- volcompimp, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3You and me both brother (ha... told ya I thought of you as the brother I never had (first live twit))...
Altavista & Hotbot used to be my personal fav's back in the days where the internet felt like the wild wild west. There may not have been much out there compared to today, but it sure felt magical and that's mostly due to guys like Flaherty. - thegeekpea, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Public visitation and funeral mass info (and at least a picture of the man) : http://www.talkplus.com/PaulFlaherty.html
- Lumiras, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's really sad. I remember using AV a long time ago. It's still pretty good to use when searching for videos.
He was only 42, it just shows that sometimes really great people get taken before their time should be up. He will be missed, and a lot of internet giants owe a whole lot to him.
Rest in Peace, Paul - 1ivewire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2One of the first search engines where you could find almost anything. It totally eclipsed the competition of its time like Webcrawler, Infoseek or Magellan.
- jmann, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I still use Altavista's babel fish for translating Japanese kanji to English...so for me Alta Vista still lives on.
- CJHtxGeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah I always use there babelfish too, however is it originally theirs? or did they buy it off someone? anyway, AV was the best back in the day...
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