Today Google turns 10, and to celebrate, they’re directing users to their “oldest available index,” which isn’t exactly ten years old—it’s from January 1, 2001—but it’s still a fascinating portal into olden times.

For example, Googling “Sarah Palin” in 2001 brings up nothing on the current VP candidate until page 4, where the Frontiersman expresses it’s gratitude that “Wasilla Mayor Sarah Palin has approached city council members about using Wasilla’s bountiful sales-tax revenues to erect” something or other. (The link stubs out.)

Also in 2001, Googling “Chris Crocker” got you a New Zealand music writer and an Austin doctor, but no weeping Britney fans.

Experience the virtual time-traveling pleasures for yourself here.

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...

14 replies on “A Googley Stroll Down Memory Lane”

  3. Googling Osama bin Laden using an index from nine months before 9/11 is an interesting and sad exercise. The first result I noticed was a reference to him as the “new powderkeg in the Midddle East.”

  8. Check Lexis/Nexis Academic on Palin. There is a lot there and I was surprised there was mention of her as a possible VP as early as March 7 (two months into her term as Governor).

    (I found it funny when I did the search for “Sarah Palin”, the LN asked “Did you mean “Sarah PLAIN?”)

  11. Wow. I didn’t make Google until fall of ’01. I thought for sure my high school Academic Decathalon achievements would have been documented for posterity in ’99.

  14. Insanely fun! I found my college stuff AND information on the woman that shares my name. I think that there are only two of us, and she’s kinda like my twin sister. Sometimes I give her credit when I fly Southwest. She has an account, I don’t. It is funny to see both of us in our baby stages.

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