Hum Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 SAN FRANCISCO - Paul A. Flaherty, a computer engineer who helped create the pioneering AltaVista online search engine, has died. He was 42. Flaherty died March 16 of a heart attack at his home in Belmont, about 20 miles south of San Francisco, family members said Friday. Flaherty came up with the idea of indexing Web pages that made the AltaVista search engine one of the most popular Internet search tools in the mid-1990s. Flaherty was working as a research engineer at Digital Equipment Corp. in Palo Alto when he teamed up with two other staff researchers in 1995 to develop AltaVista's technology. The Web site was made public in December 1995 and within weeks was processing several million searches a day. It was spun off from Digital Equipment as a private company in 1999. Flaherty served as director for technical strategy at AltaVista until leaving in 2000 to work in management consulting. At the time of his death, he was vice president for product development at TalkPlus, a telecommunications software company in Menlo Park. source Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Banzai Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 thats sad, what did he die of. also the source says he came up with the idea of indexing pages, so was altervista the first search engin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DjmUK Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 thats sad, what did he die of. also the source says he came up with the idea of indexing pages, so was altervista the first search engin From the original post --> died March 16 of a heart attack It wasn't the first, but it was the first for the invention of indexing the pages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badtz-Maru Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 poor fellow must have died because of google. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slimy Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 R.I.P. Altavista was #1 before google came along. Too bad he died in a time when google is owning :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hidea Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 poor fellow must have died because of google. ROFL. This is SOOO innapropriate to laugh at one's death.... but that made me laugh hard, silently. shocked after learning google's stock keeps on rising? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
myNando Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 He died pretty young. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Lyle Global Moderator Posted March 27, 2006 Global Moderator Share Posted March 27, 2006 ahh.. that sucks :( sad to see him go :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle101 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 R.I.P. WE WILL MISS YOU -Eagle101 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacOSXMan Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Every once in a while I see like 5 or 6 people in the paper or w/e that die in their 20s,30s,40s, across a couple of months. Anyways, seems like such an early age to die...Oh well there's a reason for everything.... R.I.P :cry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahfunaki Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 heart attack at 42, thats no good... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andre Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 People die. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Napalm Frog Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 People die. True, but insensitivity isn't something to show at times like these, eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE BAT Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 that's sad :( :( i was liking Altavista before google Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grik Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Altavista was my first favority search engine, respects to the family for this great man that helped all of us in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Salt Shaker Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 True, but insensitivity isn't something to show at times like these, eh? Being insensitive is about as bad as acting like you knew the guy and are truly shaken by his death. It's all ignorant and pathetic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxconn287 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Being insensitive is about as bad as acting like you knew the guy and are truly shaken by his death. It's all ignorant and pathetic. Yes. Some random person died. Boo hoo. Move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxicfume Veteran Posted March 27, 2006 Veteran Share Posted March 27, 2006 I remember using altavista back in the days. RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vipwoody Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 RIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APLardi1488 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 I don't believe it! I guess I'll have to google it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
User6060 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 my first search engine, the internet was a very different and more/less useful tool back then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Reaper Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Sad. I remember using Altavista for a long time before Google was around. It was pretty good too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Night.Hawk Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 This is pretty sad. Sure, I didnt' know him, but I'm sad for anyone who dies, especially at a young age like him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Frett Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Actually, I used LookSmart extensively before google came along. Anyway, yeah, that's a young age to die. Most likely I'll die of a heart attack simply because almost everybody in my family has. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devn00b Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 se la vie. While none of us knew this man, and while humans do indeed die, it is still disrespectful to a man that did quite a bit for every one of us to joke of or make light of his death. He deserves respect. R.I.P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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