Mr. Flaherty conceived of the idea of indexing the World Wide Web as a way of demonstrating the power of a new line of Digital Equipment computers while he was on a brief business trip to Italy with his wife during the spring of 1995, she said.

After returning to Palo Alto, where he was a research scientist for Digital Equipment, he discussed the idea at a series of staff meetings with Louis Monier and Joella Paquette, two other Digital employees. Mr. Monier went on to become the technical leader of the project.