Alan Emtage (born November 27, 1964) is a Bajan-Canadiancomputer scientist who conceived and implemented the first version of Archie, a pre-WebInternetsearch engine for locating material in public FTP archives. It is widely considered the world's first Internet search engine.
Life
Emtage was born in Barbados, the son of Stephen and Elanor Emtage. He attended high school at Harrison College from 1975 to 1983 (and in 1981 became the owner of a Sinclair ZX81 with 1K of memory), where he graduated at the top of his class, winning the Barbados Scholarship.
In 1983 Emtage entered McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, studying for an honors Bachelor's degree in computer science which was followed by a Master's degree in 1987 from which he graduated in 1991. Emtage was part of the team that brought the first Internet link to eastern Canada (and only the second link in the country) in 1986. In 1989 while a student and working as a systems administrator for the School of Computer Science, Emtage conceived and implemented the original version of the Archie search engine, the world's first Internet search engine.
In 1992, Emtage along with J. Peter Deutsch [Wikidata], also a McGill graduate, formed Bunyip Information Systems in Montreal—the world's first company expressly founded for and dedicated to providing Internet information services with a licensed commercial version of the Archie search engine.[2]
The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture John Battelle (Portfolio Hardcover, 2005) ISBN1-59184-088-0
How the Web was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web Robert Cailliau, James Gillies, R. Cailliau (Oxford University Press, 2000) ISBN0-19-286207-3
The Information Revolution: The Not-for-Dummies Guide to the History, Technology, And Use of the World Wide Web J. R. Okin (Ironbound Press, 2005) ISBN0-9763857-3-2
Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science Marcel Dekker (CRC Press, 2002) ISBN0-8247-2072-5
Encyclopedia of MicrocomputersAllen Kent, James G Williams, Kent Kent (Marcel Dekke, 2002) ISBN0-8247-2727-4