Documentary Film: Emanuel Goldberg and the First Search Engine

During the 1990s, work in South Hall on the history of information uncovered the forgotten work of Emanuel Goldberg (Moscow 1881-Tel Aviv 1970), who, among many other accomplishments, designed and demonstrated the first electronic search engine in 1931 (sic) in Dresden, Germany. Earlier this month, on March 10, Dresden's technology museum opened an exhibition entitled Emanuel Goldberg: Architect of Knowledge and premiered a documentary film about him: "A nearly forgotten genius, Emanuel Goldberg influenced the history of photography, documentary and media art, and laid the foundation for Israel’s optical industry now to be recognized in the first documentary of his extraordinary life."

Since both the exhibition and the film were based on Professor Michael Buckland’s biography of Goldberg, he attended as an invited guest. Join Professor Buckland for a brief explanation, and enjoy the North American premiere of the film (78 minutes in English and German with subtitles).

Vannevar Bush's famous essay "As we may think" (1945) was based — without acknowledgment — on the technology developed and patented by Goldberg. More on Emanuel Goldberg