Which web search engine first provided full-text search?

The web search engine that first provided full-text search was WebCrawler.

Created by Brian Pinkerton at the University of Washington, WebCrawler began as a desktop project in January 1994 and launched that April. Its breakthrough was allowing users to search for words appearing throughout web pages, rather than limiting results to manually supplied titles, headings, or directory descriptions.

WebCrawler’s early index contained more than 4,000 websites, and the service handled its millionth query in November 1994. Its success helped make ordinary keyword searching a familiar part of web use. It later became known for its friendly “Spidey” mascot after AOL acquired the service in 1995.

The wording can cause confusion because several earlier systems performed partial indexing or cataloging. WebCrawler is generally credited specifically with the first full-text search on the Web, not with being the first search tool of any kind. It later changed ownership several times and eventually operated as a metasearch engine, but its historical importance comes from its original full-text capability.