On February 27, 2000, the first commercial for a search engine aired. In Italy (the first Google TV commercial will arrive only in 2009). It was the spot of Italia On Line, at the time part of the Infostrada group, it was very funny and was signed by none other than the great director Emir Kusturica.
It lasts exactly one minute and we see Ali Babà with the forty robbers galloping in the desert and stop in front of the famous rock that closes – like a door – the access to a cave where a treasure is kept. The magic formula to enter it as it is known is Open Sesame !. But the Ali Babà of the commercial doesn’t remember it. First he says “Open Teramo!”. Then a thief suggests to him: “Open Celery!”. But even this time nothing. The thief gets a slap in the face from Ali Babà who furiously gets off his horse and begins to butt-head the rock shouting “Open up, you bastard! Open up, open up! ”. But at that point another thief arrives with a personal computer who types www.iol.it and finds the web page with the magic formula. The rock opens wide and a voiceover says: “Doors will open for you that you would never have thought of.” That commercial had some success. The search engine was developed in 1996 by a team from the University of Pisa: it was called Arianna and it had become the main search engine in Italian. Too bad we didn’t believe it.