The first search engine invented on the internet is Archie, developed in 1990. Archie was designed to index FTP archives, allowing users to locate specific files on public servers. It enabled users to search for resources and retrieve data, laying the foundational principles for subsequent search engine technology. Though basic by today's standards, Archie was a pioneering effort that demonstrated the need for efficient information retrieval and paved the way for more advanced search engines like Google and Bing which operate on vastly improved algorithms and data structures.