Bangalore: Alta Vista, which once ruled the roost as search engine in late 90s, has been put to rest on Monday by Yahoo!. It will join the other dead search engines like Kozmo.com and Ask Jeeves, reports AP.

AltaVista was introduced in 1995 by Massachusetts-based company CMGI, three years before Google was founded, and was a very popular search engine. However with the advent of Google, it lost its prominence and later was purchased by Yahoo!, who retained the brand and showed AltaVista searches results from its own search engine, along with offering a bevy of online services instead of sticking solely with the search. By the time the site reversed the course, it was too late. Its finances were sinking and Google was on the rise.

Last month, Yahoo, had expressed its decision to shut down the relic search engine on its Tumblr page.  

Search industry expert Danny Sullivan compared AltaVista to a bright child neglected by its parents."You were loved. You really were," he wrote in a blog post. "People did not want to leave you. But despite adding new features, some of which Google copied, you couldn't keep up with the pace and innovation of that company, which decided against becoming a portal like your corporate masters ordered for you."

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