Today in 1990, Archie, the first Internet search engine, was launched. The program downloaded the directory listings of all the files located on public anonymous FTP (File Transfer Protocol) sites, creating a searchable database of file names; however, Archie did not index the contents of these sites since the amount of information was so limited it could be easily searched manually.

Today, 92% of people online (in the U.S.) use search engines to find information on the Web. Search has been a top online activity ever since the Pew Internet Project has started to track online activities in 2002:

And search tomorrow? Eric Schmidt: “I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions. They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.”