Flashback Fridays: The World Wide Web!

FREE AOL OMGGG!!!!1!!1!
Photo Credit Pulse2.com

Unlike the kiddos of today, I can remember a time without a computer. Obviously, this is a very vague memory because we got one when I six, but I still like to pull out that superiority card from time to time when talking to my 12 year old cousin. She can barely fathom that my first family computer would now be older than she is.

I can distinctly remember the day I discovered the internet. It was a Friday afternoon back in 1998. Before taking me to my Dad's house for the weekend as is the custom with divorced families, my Grandmother and I stopped at the supermarket. There at the end of the check-out counters I saw the beauty before me: a beautiful row of shiny CDs promising the gift of the internet!

I quickly snatched a CD and took it with me to my Dad's. I recall being in his kitchen eagerly handing him the CD saying, "Dad...I want to go to AOL Keyword: Nick.com like the TV said to do." I apparently had no idea the Nickelodeon website existed without having to have AOL.

What happened next changed my world forever...I found out we actually already had the internet. We had some magic thing called Comcast that was super fast. Shortly thereafter, my Mom got the internet, but she had dial-up. Let's reminisce with the beautiful melodic sound of dial up internet doing the actual dialing up part:

Does anyone remember how awesome websites from the 90s looked? All those hyperlinks! All those snazzy graphics! All those fancy HTML tricks! If you don't remember, perhaps this slide show of 90s websites that still exist will help you out. My personal favorite is the official website for the movie SpaceJam. It's been left untouched since its launch in 1996. Another gem is the website for You've Got Mail.

So Beautiful. So Simple. So 90s
Photo Credit: Warner Bros. 

Yes, folks, the 90s were a much simpler time for the Internet. Imagine if these sites are still up 50 years from now. Future generations will be so confused. Of course, this adheres to the underlying assumption that we're still using the internet then. With the rapid increase of newer and faster technology we're experiencing, who knows?

What were your favorite 90s sites? Do you remember your first encounter with the world wide web?