Dogpile, a metasearch engine that debuted in 1997, was developed by InfoSpace, a company founded by Jim Voelker and Paul Reubens. InfoSpace was a technology company based in Bellevue, Washington, that initially focused on providing a platform for search services. The idea behind Dogpile was to create a search engine that could aggregate results from multiple popular search engines at the time, such as Yahoo, AltaVista, Excite, and later Google. This approach aimed to offer users a broader range of search results by combining the strengths of multiple search engines.
The name “Dogpile” itself came from the term often used to describe a group of things or people piling on top of one another in a chaotic, somewhat playful manner—apt for a service that gathered results from a number of different sources. The tagline for Dogpile at the time was “The web’s fastest search engine,” highlighting its goal of providing quick and comprehensive search results.
Initially, Dogpile was notable for its user-friendly interface and its ability to deliver better search results than most traditional search engines at the time. It was also one of the earliest search engines to offer image search, an essential feature as the internet grew.
Dogpile’s business model was based on generating revenue from search advertising, which was typical of search engines at the time. InfoSpace was able to make use of its partnerships with other search providers, showing ads alongside search results. Over the years, Dogpile changed hands a few times and saw some decline as Google became the dominant force in search. Nonetheless, Dogpile continued to serve as a niche metasearch engine.
InfoSpace itself was eventually rebranded and diversified into other areas, but Dogpile remains a reminder of the early days of web search engines, offering a unique approach to getting results by tapping into various search providers.