internet history
Over-Filtering The Internet
Despite many, many failed attempts to do so, people keep trying to filter the internet. Let’s look at the lens of the current moment through past attempts—including one led by, of all people, a librarian.
The Career Calamity
Two of the most prominent legacy job application sites file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Together. Maybe they lost their edge.
What Was ISDN?
For decades, the telephone industry supported a new technology designed to make copper lines more useful to the average consumer. It’s great—if you’re a voice actor.
The Next Chapter
Online culture sure feels like it’s in a transition phase, doesn’t it? In an attempt to understand what we learned this week, let’s compare it to some prior internet-era shifts.
Free As In Internet
In the '80s, a defining online phenomenon—being able to use the internet for free—came from (of all places) Cleveland. Here’s the story of the Free-Net.
The Central Question
What is the difference between centralization and decentralization, and what should you know? I was asked this question recently; here’s my attempt to answer.
The Dial-Up Volunteer Army
Considering the fact that many early online networks relied on volunteers to help build up their base—until one such network, AOL, got too big.
Dr. Koop’s Digital Korner
How famed U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, at the age of 82, became an internet entrepreneur, and why his namesake website burned out, fast.
By Our Powers Combined …
How the webring became the grassroots tool of choice for sharing content online in the ‘90s. The concept was social media before media was social.
The Internet's First Election
The web wasn't common in 1992, but presidential candidates notably took baby steps toward the internet that year—Ross Perot in a bigger way than most.
No More Eternal Septembers
For decades, technical users looking down on the less knowledgeable have set the stage for a lot of bad online discourse. Can those users break the chain?
FTP Fadeout
The beating heart of the early internet may have been FTP, or file transfer protocol. But after 50 years of mainstream use, its demise may be imminent.
News In Small Bytes
Newspapers said they wanted to protect the print product, but they were raring to go when it came to experimental online news approaches in the early '80s.
We Were Promised Skynet
Satellite internet was once seen as a holy grail of connect-anywhere online access. It hasn’t worked yet, but the promise is closer than ever.
The Internet’s Many Branches
The evolution of the top-level domain, a solution to a technical problem that has evolved into something with lots of cultural and marketing value.
The Original Internet Bottleneck
Many early ISPs—particularly AOL—weren’t ready to offer unlimited internet access in the mid-’90s. That is, until a surprising disruptor appeared: AT&T.
Thanks, Craig
Hitting its 25th anniversary this month, Craigslist remains a reminder that a more democratic version of the internet can still thrive.
The Inbox Pioneer
For more than 25 years, this newsletter author has been snarking wise about weird news. Here’s the tale of This is True, one of the first inbox success stories.
Internet Synthesis Protocol
How the professional-minded MIDI format, for an incredibly short but memorable period of time, became the primary way music was shared on the internet.
The Wires Barely Reach
It took a while for the internet to turn into a major global force, but it wasn't for lack of trying. (Peter Gabriel deserves at least some of the credit.)
Jumping-Off Point
What the heck is a jumpstation, and why did it fade from internet nomenclature? It’s complicated, but the web’s first search engine is in there somewhere.
Driver Disaster
Why USB ports changed the world for the better, or what I learned from a futile month of trying to get a 25-year-old webcam working on a modern PC.
Michael Wolff’s Internet Book Empire
The Trump administration tell-all scribe has a history with digital publishing that goes way back. In fact, he edited one of the first guides to the internet.
The Internet of Food
Online food delivery was probably secretly essential to the internet’s success, but it took a while for us to get a food option as good as Grubhub.
Extreme Googling
It’s easy to forget given its size, but Google fundamentally changed our relationship with information. Two decades later, we’re still feeling the effects.
Close Your Open Tabs
A case in favor of browser tab minimalism, or closing the tabs you’re not using. Sometimes, information overload has its limits.
Nothing But Net (And Ads)
The rise of the ad-sponsored dial-up ISP offers some useful lessons on promising too much in the age of MoviePass. Good luck getting rid of that ad.
WebTV’s Greatest Celebrity User
Turns out R. Stevie Moore, a Tedium favorite, was a very active user of WebTV, an under-loved icon of the early internet. It’s apparent in his video work.
The Oracle That Spoke Too Soon
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison sold the tech world on the Network Computer, a machine designed to kill the PC’s dominance. The problem? It was 15 years too early.
Is Blogging Dead?
As some ponder whether the practice of blogging should be seen in the past tense, it may be better to consider what the concept gave us in the first place.
Picking Up The Slack
Internet Relay Chat beat Slack to real-time chat by decades and helped define much of our early online culture, yet way more people use Slack. Why is that?
Encoded, Decoded
How Usenet—a protocol intended for conversations—was forever changed once the public figured out you could transfer binary files through it.
A Eulogy for Eudora
The early graphical client Eudora was how people checked their email in the ’90s. But in the end, only the power users stuck around. Here’s what you missed.
The Internet On Dead Trees
Books and periodicals about the internet were a curious phenomenon—in no small part because they frequently pandered to the largest possible audience.
Burrowing A Gopher Hole
The Gopher protocol isn't supported by the modern web basically at all, but despite this, it lingers on, a quarter century from its peak. Here's how.
Your Code Is Junky
FrontPage tried to solve an important problem in the early-internet era—the idea of making web design accessible to mere mortals—but the code wasn't so hot.
An Impurrfect History
Cats.com, a domain name that has languished, is currently up for auction. Let’s take a look back of the history of the internet’s biggest domain underdog.
All Sock Puppets Go To Heaven
If someone were to create an online store like Pets.com today, it probably would've worked. So why did it fail miserably back in 2000? A few reasons.
Getting The Next Word In
The word processor doesn't just deserve scolding. Here's an honest look at some budding word-processor innovation efforts. They're worth writing home about.
The Internet Will Be Televised
Two decades ago, WebTV launched a bold idea into the mainstream … and caught the fringes. What can we learn about the internet from this noble failure?
We're Going Viral
The computer virus has been around for more than 40 years now, and it's caused lots of panic (and occasionally some damage) over the years. But don't freak.
The History of Internet Explorer Hatred
Microsoft's Internet Explorer was one of the earliest things that made tech users really freaking mad. It gave those users something to fight against.
Tales Of The Interwebs
Protecting internet history is an important task, so we've taken it upon ourselves to save some of the best stories.
Quitting is OK
Blogger Andrew Sullivan's decision to quit daily blogging is the kind of decision that everyone else eventually makes when they quit stuff.
LOUD NOISES
If you like loud noises, you're probably crazy, but you might really like this blog post as a result.
Meet The Internet's First Hater
Before it became cool to dislike things online, a guy named David Mirsky was snarking heavily on Mirsky's Worst of the Web.