Memoirs of Early Internet: Top 7 Websites Of Early Web Era

Ever wondered how the web looked some 15 years earlier from now. If you were there to experience it then you might remember how different it was back then, and if not, you will definitely get surprised at how far we have come since then. Through this post we have tried to present a flashback of World Wide Web as it used to look some 10 to 15 years back.

Let us go back and walk down the memory lane and remember how the web looked when Apple used to be a struggling company and AOL was a thriving Internet service provider. The web was a completely different place back then and Microsoft had yet not released the Windows 98 version.

Apple

Today, Apple is the most valuable consumer facing brand in the world, but back then it was a struggling company. It was a struggling organization which was pushing forward the mobile devices with its eMate 300. This device was built on the Newton platform developed by Apple itself but the device was a flop. The Apple’s website from 1997 looks nothing like the present Apple Company and one might think that it’s entirely about some other company.

Google

Google isn’t as old as most of you might think it to be. In-fact, they didn’t even have a website till 1998. Even then the company had a simple iconic website with minimalistic design. One thing that very few people know about the reason behind starting with such a simple design was lack of a webmaster or any person who knew HTML. 

Yahoo

Before Google came into existence people used other search engines. Yahoo was the most prominent search engine back then. The Yahoo website was a basic search engine and directory at that time. What you see today is a full packed front page which could have not been done back then as it would have taken very long to download the pages on those old dial-up modems.

Microsoft

The Windows 98 version was yet not released and Microsoft was fully involved with the development and promotion of this project. Their website was featuring the slogan “where do you want to go today?” on their website. Further, the top headline on the website read “Internet Explorer 4.0 Debuts to Critics’ Applause” which seems a little hilarious now as IE finally became a drag on the Internet. They tried to enhance it and actually kept working on it till they released the IE version 6 after which they stopped developing it.

Amazon

We couldn’t find any Amazon snapshots from 1997 therefore we are going to talk about the website from 1999. The old Amazon website might look modern to many of us but this is probably just because the website was changed very little until its recent redesign.

AOL

AOL had a decent website even back then. The website advertized the release of its Instant messenger beta version very promptly over the home page. The messenger was a big hit. You can also see the link to the free AOL trial and this trial version is supposed to have got many users over the internet for the very first time.