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Most of you must have heard about AltaVista, a search engine which was founded in 1995. Equipment Corporation was initially the search engine’s developer and people benefitted greatly. It used to be a very famous search engine until Google came and shattered all its profiting hopes. This made way for Yahoo to purchase it in 2003. At this time the brand did not change but all its services were acquired by Yahoo. Even the searches of AltaVista were done on Yahoo’s search engine. |
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Yahoo shut down the search engine’s service completely on July 8th, 2013. Today if one visits the website then he/she will be directed to Yahoo’s homepage. |
• 1995 Logo |
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If we talk about AltaVista’s logo then it went through many changes over a period of 18 years. The first design was made with Peignot font. It had a mountain range as the background picture. There was a red broad strip on which “OnSite Knowledge” was written. The name AltaVista means “view from above” which was probably kept because initially the company was situated in Palo Alto, California. |
• 1998 Logo |
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The next logo update came after 1998. This was probably because the company wanted to move ahead from a regular site to a portal. This time the logo’s Peignot font was changed to Interstate. In the starting the company did not even had its own URL and one had to go to http://www.altavista.digital.com/ to access the search engine. The URL had been owned by Digital till 1998 when AltaVista decided to buy a URL for itself. |
• 1999 Logo |
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Later on when Compaq had taken over from Digital, it also sold the firm. But this time, it was given to a venture capital firm named CMGI. This was in 1999 and the company decided to change business operating strategies. In 1999, the new look of AltaVista was disclosed with a mega event promoted through a $120 dollar advertisement campaign. The new logo was designed without mountains. “AltaVista” was written with a new font called Helvetica, all in lower-case letters. There were two orange dots on the logo to give it a make it more distant and personal. |
• 2001 Logo |
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After a few years, the company decided to change the logo again. The logo without mountains was perhaps not liked by the people because the AltaVista again brought them. The blue color was slightly changed but the font remained the same, written in lower case. |
• 2002 logo |
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AltaVista’s last logo change before its closure was in November 2002. This was their last attempt to attract people on search engine and portal because Google took up their search engine audience while Yahoo moved ahead in the portal. The new logo revealed a new typeface making it more search-engine type. Moreover a monogram was added in place of mountains which the company said to have placed because it wanted to show the company’s re-energized approach and focus on search. This logo remained the longest with the company, nearly for 11 years. |
