Paul Flaherty (computer scientist)

Paul Flaherty is an American computer scientist best known for his pioneering work in the development of web search technology. He was a key member of the team at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Systems Research Center (SRC) that created AltaVista, one of the first comprehensive and widely used search engines on the World Wide Web.

Flaherty joined DEC SRC in 1988. His contributions to AltaVista, which was launched in 1995, included developing indexing techniques and scaling strategies that allowed the search engine to handle a rapidly growing web. He played a crucial role in building the infrastructure that enabled AltaVista to index a vast number of web pages far exceeding the capabilities of existing search tools at the time. This involved designing and implementing distributed systems and efficient algorithms for crawling, indexing, and searching the web.

After leaving DEC, Flaherty worked on other search-related projects and held positions at various technology companies. His work on AltaVista is considered a foundational contribution to the development of modern web search and online information retrieval. His contributions helped shape the way people access and interact with information on the internet.