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Old School ForeignPolicy.com
In celebration of its 10th birthday, Google is making the Web, circa 2001, available this month. (For technical reasons, 2001 was the earliest version of its index that it could make available.)
Here are some fun findings I came across while playing with the site, which proudly announces "Search 1,326,920,000 web pages":
ForeignPolicy.com. At the time I searched, there was an AIG advertisement at the top of the screen that declared, "The greatest risk is not taking one." (I guess bailed-out AIG took that statement to its extreme.)
Barack Obama. The name gets 672 results, the first to his page at the Illinois Senate.
John McCain. The first link takes you to the "Straight Talk America" site left over from his 2000 presidential campaign.
Iraq war. It gets 17,600 results, with nine of the first 10 referring to the Iran-Iraq War. (No. 10 is to the "Iraq War Drinking Game.")
Facebook. The second link that pops up takes you to a page that says, "The facebook is only accessible to people on the Harvard network."
What kind of antique jewels have you come across while playing with the 2001 Google? Feel free to comment below.













Sarah Palin
A search for "Sarah Palin" generates no results. The sixth result from earching without the quotation marks brings a link for "Parker, Sarah Jessica." ("Wasilla" did come up, so it was around back then...)
Afghanistan
The first result for Afghanistan is a site that boasts, "The Friendliest Country in the World, Possibly the Universe." (And still does, apparently.) Amazingly, there is an entry dated December 14th, 2001, announcing a new addition to their Afghan souvenir shop.
Wikipedia
681 hits.
Drudge report
looks pretty much the same. Glad some things never change.