> My recollection was that as soon as anyone - but especially techies - tried Google even once they never went back.

> The lack of fresh index surely was a factor but not sure whether it was primary.

I wasn't aware about index back then, but I saw broken links, at that time I thought that was normal, that it takes time to scan the entire Internet. With Google I generally got working websites.

I did like the boolean search in AV, it helped with obscure searches, especially when name was similar to a typo of a popular word.