[Up: websites] [Robot Wisdom home page]
1995: spring: project started by Louis Monier
1995: 04Jul: first spidering by Scooter
1995: 15Dec: site goes public at www.altavista.digital.com
1996: Jun: partners with Yahoo (until Jul 1998)
1996: Oct: www.altavista.com mimics Digital's page [Wayback]
1997: 11Dec: first mentions of babelfish.altavista on Usenet [Wayback]
1998: Feb: real site [Wayback]; fake site [Wayback]
1998: Jun: Compaq buys Digital (and Altavista) for $9B [cite]
1998: Jun: site redesign
1998? Compaq pays $3M for www.altavista.com domain [cite]
1998: 12Dec: [Wayback]
1999: Jan: Compaq spins off Altavista as subsidiary, plans IPO, chooses Rod Schrock as CEO [cite]
1999: May: [Wayback]
1999: 29Jun: CMGI buys AltaVista from Compaq for $2.3B [article]
1999: 10Sep: AV stops spidering! [report]
1999: 08Oct: announces site relaunch for 25Oct, $120M ad campaign [CNet]
1999: 05Oct: [Wayback]
1999: 12Oct: [Wayback]
1999: 05Nov: critique [article]
1999: 15Nov: redesigned site [Wayback]
1999: 29Nov: AV buys Raging Bull [article]
1999: 17Dec: AV files for $300M IPO [article]
2000: May: AV launches Raging Search [CNet]
2000: 15Sep: 225 layoffs [cite]
2000: 09Oct: droll critique [article]
2000: 19Oct: CEO Rod Schrock resigns [CNet]
2001: 18Jan: 200 more layoffs [cite]
2001: 06Apr: CMGI rumored to need to sell AV [article]
2001: 18Sep: layoffs, new CEO [article]
Sources: timeline, dossier; Big Picture
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