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Type Jonathon Fletcher in Google and only a few results will show up. But 20 years ago, at the University of Stirling in Scotland, he invented the first web crawling search engine –– JumpStation. The web crawl is an automated programme that allows search engines to go through webpages to create an index that makes it possible to search for specific information. This technology is at the heart of Google and Yahoo search engines. An email chat with “the father of the search engine” who refused to reveal what was keeping him busy these days.
The web crawler — how did you come up with it?
At the time there was a “What’s New” page (on a web server operated by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications) where people registered their new websites for everyone to see. I knew from setting up the University (of Stirling) website that the contents of websites kept changing and I had no way to look for this changed content. I wrote the web crawler to work its way around the web and build up a database of headers and titles. I was a computing science graduate, so writing software to do this was natural for me.
Why did you call your search engine JumpStation?
The idea was that it was a place from which a user could jump to other places. I am not sure that it was a very good name!
What are the similarities between your web crawler and the one that’s behind Google or Yahoo?
First, mine in 1993 was very primitive compared with Alta Vista in 1995 and Google in 1998. I collected only the words in the title and header of each web page. I did not have enough space to collect more. I think what they had in common was the combination of a web crawler to find and index pages and a user-oriented search function for the resulting database of words mapping to web pages.
In 1992-93 what was the web like?
Very small, and very monochrome. There was no JavaScript (computer programming language) and no CSS (Cascading Style Sheets, an application to style web pages). The dominant browser was NCSA Mosaic. The number of sites was small and there were more education sites than corporate sites… the web was much more academic than commercial.
What was the most popular website?
I am not sure. I think that the NCSA “What’s New” page was probably the most popular page on the web!
When the project was abandoned, how many pages were there on the web?
As of June 1994 there were between 275,000 and 280,000 pages in the index. The full web would have had more than this –– there would have been locations that the web crawler had not reached.
Did you ever get a chance to discuss the technology behind searching on the web with Google guys Sergey Brin or Larry Page?
No. What they did in 1998 was much better than what I did in 1993.
What do you think is the future of search engines? Will Facebook have a role to play?
I think search has to improve from working through today’s presentation medium (the web) to working with the underlying data directly. Facebook may have a role to play as it provides search of its data. Google via Gmail and Google+ may have a role too. I think the most important thing is to search the data behind the web page and not see everything through the lense of the web.
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What do you think is the future of the web?
I think it continues for another five to 15 years and then some new technology will replace it. The web is just today’s medium for information transfer and presentation. Other mediums will come. Unfortunately, I have no idea what will be next. I do not spend much time thinking about it. I think that we will continue to see a separation of Internet technologies for human consumption (example, web pages in web browsers) and technologies for data access (example, the API services –– application programming interface specifies how some software components should interact with each other — offered by Twitter, Amazon, etc.)
You have enough reasons to look back and perhaps regret not being able to pursue JumpStation. Do you look back?
Not seriously. I have no way to change the past. I prefer to think about what I am doing in the present that can make a difference in the future.
When you were working on JumpStation, what was your personal life like?
I was a relatively poor new graduate with little money. I worked a lot at the expense of a social life. I was single so there were no challenges on the personal front.
Your reaction when JumpStation had to be abandoned?
I shut it down. It was sad but I had no time to keep it running from Tokyo (he moved to Tokyo in October 1994) and I had not managed to find anyone else to keep it running.
What was your first computer and what did you do on it?
A Sinclair ZX81, which I got in 1981. It had 1Kb of memory. I learned BASIC (programming language).
Any technology/gizmo you are looking forward to?
I think the Internet of Things is going to be a major step forward. I think that the Internet of Things plus intelligent analytics of the resulting data is going to be a very interesting field. The Internet of Things is an interesting idea… many connected devices for sensing (and sometimes control) of specific local environments. There are interesting applications, from more accurate weather reporting and early (or quick) warnings of earthquakes and tsunamis by having many sensors each reporting their local conditions at the macro level all the way to more intelligent energy efficiency in buildings by having room reports (if the lights are on/off and if there is movement in the room).
Besides research material, what do you usually search for online today?
Well, mostly research material, news, educational materials.
In what ways can the Internet help rural areas in India?
I would look at examples in Africa of the emergence and success of mobile phone-based banking and micro-finance services. There are many new examples in the news every few days of how mobile technology is helping people in environments with limited infrastructure access.
Finally, are you happy being known as “the father of the search engine” rather than being out there, powering a search engine?
It would have been nice if I had continued the project but that is a backwards-looking statement. I have had almost no involvement in information retrieval since 1993-1994.
