Alan Emtage | |
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 Emtage in 2019 | |
| Born | Stephen Alan Emtage[1] (1964-11-27)November 27, 1964 (age 61) |
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| Known for | Archie (search engine) |
| Website | alanemtage |
Alan Emtage (born November 27, 1964) is aBajan-Canadiancomputer scientist who conceived and implemented the first version ofArchie, a pre-WebInternetsearch engine for locating material in publicFTP archives. It is widely considered the world's first Internet search engine.
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Emtage was born inBarbados, the son of Sir Stephen and Margot Lady Emtage. He attended high school atHarrison College from 1975 to 1983 (and in 1981 became the owner of aSinclair ZX81 with 1K of memory), where he graduated at the top of his class, winning the Barbados Scholarship[2].
In 1983 Emtage enteredMcGill University inMontreal, Quebec, Canada, studying for an honorsBachelor's degree incomputer science which was followed by aMaster'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 asystems administrator for the School of Computer Science, Emtage conceived and implemented the original version of theArchie search engine, the world's first Internet search engine.[3]
In 1992, Emtage along withJ. 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.[4]
Emtage was a founding member of theInternet Society and went on to create and chair several working groups at theInternet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the standard-setting body for the Internet. Working with other pioneers such asTim Berners-Lee,Marc Andreessen,Mark McCahill (creator ofGopher) andJon Postel, Emtage co-chaired theUniform Resource Identifier working group which created the standard forUniform Resource Locators (URLs).
In 2017, Emtage was inducted as an Innovator by theInternet Society into theInternet Hall of Fame in a ceremony inLos Angeles.[5][6] In 2019, Emtage was conferred theHonorary Degree ofDoctor of Science from theUniversity of the West Indies,[7] and in 2022 received anHonorary Degree ofDoctor of Science fromMcGill University.[1]
Emtage has spoken and lectured on Internet Information Systems and ischief technical officer atMediapolis, aWeb engineering company inNew York City.
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