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AltaVista Officially Closes — What Will Pawnee Do!

Danny Sullivan on July 8, 2013 at 1:34 pm

We mourned the closing of AltaVista when it was announced at the end of last month. But today’s the day it actually closed. No more AltaVista. Gone. Perhaps no one will suffer as much as the inhabitants of Pawnee, Indiana.

The fictional town from the TV show Parks & Recreation has mentioned AltaVista in various episodes over the years, perhaps giving the now-defunct search engine the most recognition in the Media Blitz episode from Season 3.

Ben Wyatt’s failure as a teenage mayor is revealed after local radio talkshow hosts Crazy Ira & The Douche bring him on the air, saying they’ve researched his history on AltaVista. Later, when Ben’s answering questions on a TV show, a caller says the same thing.

Ben exclaims, “Why does everyone in this town use AltaVista? Is it 1997?” Here’s a Vine of the clip:

Why does everyone in this town use AltaVista? Is it 1997? https://t.co/dPpo0WI76F
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) July 8, 2013

There were other references to AltaVista over the years that I wish I’d written down. Nor did they end with Season 3. In the Sex Education episode from Season 5, Tom Haverford is shocked that Jerry Gergich gets to his email by searching for Yahoo at AltaVista.

As Betabeat recapped:

Tom: “Oh my God, Jerry, when you check your email you go to AltaVista and type, ‘Please go to yahoo.com?’ You don’t have your email bookmarked? Do you have any bookmarks?”
Jerry: “What’s bookmarks?”
Tom: “God, Jerry! You don’t deserve the internet!”

Remember your own favorite mention? Please add them in the comments below.

As for AltaVista, if you go to the site today, it’s all gone — replaced by the Yahoo-branded landing page below:

Yahoo!

For more about AltaVista’s past glory, please see our previous story, A Eulogy For AltaVista, The Google Of Its Time.

About The Author

Danny Sullivan

Danny Sullivan was a journalist and analyst who covered the digital and search marketing space from 1996 through 2017. He was also a cofounder of Third Door Media, which publishes Search Engine Land, Marketing Land, MarTech Today and produces the SMX: Search Marketing Expo and MarTech events. He retired from journalism and Third Door Media in June 2017. You can learn more about him on his personal site & blog He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.