American History 1988
Chapter 338 - 327: Internet Guide

Chapter 338: Chapter 327: Internet Guide

Dean hadn’t strolled around the Stanford campus for a long time, even though one of his companies and residences wasn’t far from here.

But today was an exception, as he returned to the quadrangle where the Engineering School was located.

The major in Computer Science he once pursued was right here, and by his calculation, more than two years had passed.

Although Dean kept a low profile, bringing only Katelin with him.

Still, many former students recognized him.

However, they didn’t swarm over to him; they simply greeted him warmly and then passed by each other.

Even the most excited students who considered Dean an idol were satisfied with just a photo together and then left.

It has to be said that Stanford students all had a bursting confidence about them, as if the future was already within their reach.

Finally, following the address David Fero had given, Dean found the simple trailer-style prefab.

This was one of the characteristics of Stanford University, often used as student dormitories or activity bases for various hobbies and interests.

Even though Dean was long accustomed to things within the Stanford campus,

he still couldn’t understand why David Fero would choose this place for their meeting.

For someone of his wealth to appear here, it was simply incongruous.

But perhaps that was David Fero, who almost showed no traces of being a billionaire.

Dean knocked twice on the door, then bent down to crawl into the trailer.

His tall figure maneuvered around a bicycle, crossed over a few snowboards, and approached a computer with a label on it.

Dean looked closely at the label, which read "Konishiki."

"That’s the name I gave it," said David Fero, sitting barefoot on a beanbag chair, smiling quietly.

"That name doesn’t sound very American," Dean remarked.

"It’s the name of a sumo wrestler, and I like him," David Fero said, unconcerned.

He had a quiet personality and didn’t care much about what others thought, fond of giving silly names to his belongings.

"So this is the trophy you brought back from Neon?" Dean tapped the computer in front of him with his finger.

"Jerry and I had a lot of fun there, and we found some things that interested both of us."

Only then did Dean notice a young man with glasses sitting next to David Fero.

"Hello, Price..."

"Call me Dean, it’s like being at home here at Stanford."

The young man was just about to stand up and greet him when Dean corrected his form of address.

When communicating with all Stanford students, he was accustomed to calling each other by first names, rather than adding ’Mr.’ to the surname.

"Alright, Dean," the bespectacled young man smiled broadly.

It was evident that his personality was much more lively than David’s.

"Oh right, I’m Jerry, Jerry Yang."

"Hi, Jerry," Dean shook hands with him.

With the modest lighting in the room, Dean could just make out the face of the young Asian man.

He looked much younger and more spirited than in the photos published in the media later on.

By his age, this was the time when a person is most spirited, with eyes full of curiosity and challenge towards the world.

"So you said you had something you wanted to discuss with me?" After the initial greetings, Dean casually sat down on a plastic box that served as a stool.

"Yeah," David and Jerry exchanged glances, and then the former excitedly rubbed his hands together and turned on the computer named "Konishiki."

"This is an internet guide we’ve created, listing some of the most popular websites."

In the computer screen David opened, what caught Dean’s eye was the Explorer 1.0 browser.

However, the webpage displayed was not Price’s List, but a website ranking directory.

Dean looked up at the purple title bar, "Yang’s World Wide Web Guide."

Interestingly, the number-one-ranked website was Price’s List.

Beyond the website directories, there were also some guide questions under the title.

Questions like "What’s news?" and "What’s Cool?" for instance.

"It can help people find websites they’re interested in?" Dean understood the purpose of the site at first glance.

"Exactly, we want to share the information with others," Yang Zhiyuan was pleased that Dean grasped their intention.

"A fantastic idea," Dean nodded in appreciation.

In the early days of the internet, everyone’s vision was actually very simple and pure.

"So what did you mean by asking for my help?" Dean turned to look at David.

"We would like to make use of your search engine..." David spread his hands, "you know, Dean, there are more and more websites now.

If we rely solely on manual filtering, it will take a lot of time."

Last year, there were only about ten thousand websites on the internet, most of which were still experimental and not very useful.

At that time, putting together an online guide wasn’t tough for David and his team.

But this year, the number of websites had increased more than tenfold. With so many sites, manual screening was almost impossible.

"A search engine?" Dean’s eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Yes, I remember you developed a similar tool. And neither Jerry nor I are good at these things."

David Fero and Jerry Yang looked at each other and shrugged.

The former specialized in electrical engineering and the latter in computer-aided design.

As for why Yang Zhiyuan chose this relatively niche major, it was because in the ’90s when he enrolled,

Silicon Graphics was still the darling of Silicon Valley, so his choice looked pretty good.

However, just a few years later, the situation had changed.

But luckily he was at Stanford University, where his teaching assistant David Fero had already experienced,

the magical world of the Explorer and Mosaic browsers.

So, under his influence, the two seized the opportunity during their advisor’s vacation.

In this trailer tucked away in the corner of the quadrangle, they began their first website creation.

At first, they tried making a homepage for a basketball league and a site introducing Neon sumo wrestling.

The two spent a lot of time browsing web pages, and David even compiled a list of his favorite websites to visit.

This made it easier for them to roam among the increasingly vast ocean of information; at that time, for the sake of the website, they worked day and night, filling the trailer with pizza boxes.

The inspiration for the website’s categorization tags came from Yang Zhiyuan’s part-time job a few years ago.

While he was an undergraduate, he had worked part-time at Stanford University’s library.

In charge of arranging the bookshelves, he discovered the advantages of the Dewey Decimal Classification system.

So he realized they could go one step further by arranging websites in HTML format and displaying them by category on a web page.

David, who didn’t like the limelight, didn’t want his name to appear on it.

In the end, the website became known as "Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web."

With the growing popularity of the Explorer browser, more and more people began flocking to the internet.

As they tried to navigate the dazzling array of online content, this guide became a beacon of light.

With the increase in users, more and more people began to leave messages for David and the others.

Some suggested they add certain interesting websites, others suggested the site implement a search function.

This way, everyone could find the sites they were interested in from the multitude of categorized directories.

David and Jerry Yang seriously discussed this suggestion, eventually agreeing that a search engine could be a great help.

It could be used for in-site searches, but most importantly, it could retrieve information from external sites.

If users could find what they wanted through the search engine, it would undoubtedly save them a lot of time.

While manually sorted website directories were more accurate, they could first filter through the search engine.

Then, they could perform manual verification based on this.

Whichever method was used, it would greatly simplify their work.

Thus, the two began to conceive the search engine for their website, but because of their professional focus, they had no idea where to start.

It wasn’t until David happened to open Price’s List and saw the search box there that he suddenly remembered.

Dean had what they needed, and even Price’s List was a website he’d struggled to create.

After yet another fruitless attempt, David simply dialed Dean’s number.

This was the reason Dean had come here today; David and the others wanted to borrow his search engine.

"You want to add a search box to this guide and turn it into a navigation service website?"

Dean already knew what they wanted to do—history’s inertia was as consistent as ever.

"A navigation service website? Yes, that’s it!" David liked the term, it precisely described what they wanted to do.

Helping people find the information they’re interested in on the internet was just that simple and clear.

"OK, can I ask a question first?" Dean set aside the matter of the search engine.

"What?" Both David and Jerry Yang looked at him curiously.

"How many people visit this World Wide Web guide every day?" Dean pointed at the computer screen.

"About close to a million, we haven’t precisely counted," shrugged David.

"A million hits?!" This time, Dean was truly taken aback.

This traffic volume was only second to Price’s List, making it one of the most visited websites on the entire internet.

But looking at the rudimentary hardware inside the trailer, Dean still had some doubts.

"Where is your server? How does the website manage such high traffic without crashing?"

"Uh..." David and Jerry Yang looked at each other, both a bit embarrassed, "we’re using Stanford University’s servers.

And it’s been crashing a lot recently, so the campus administrators have already informed us that we need to move off-campus as soon as possible."

Dean was startled—it turned out they were taking advantage of Stanford’s resources.

No wonder they could operate a website with nearly a million daily clicks from within a trailer.

Placing all of this within the Stanford campus made everything make sense.

However, by the looks of it, even Stanford could no longer handle nearly a million visitors anymore.

Dean’s eyes shifted a few times, and then he had an idea.

"How about this, I can provide you with a search engine, and even a server to boot.

But in exchange, you also have to agree to a condition from me."

David and the others looked at each other and then simultaneously asked, "What condition?"