The old internet

[MacBH928]

Hello

Does any one share with me the feeling of missing the old internet?

I know its probably weird to you by what do I mean the old internet, but what i mean is the internet back in its early WWW days u know up until aroun 99 or 2000.

I recall when searching the internet there was certain websites where you go to and get your information from, for anything from wrestling to biophysics. There is also few programs and websites to connect with people. I recall freetel, ICQ, IRC, and Microsoft chat were all fun things.

I kind of also miss on websites made by the average people on places like geocities and specially simplenet. It had a lot of personal touch to them with information, although little, but clear and accessible.

Today internet is information overload murderer. There is a lot of place for connect with others that i feel i am separated from the people and not connected. Some people use twitter, some use facebook, some use myspace, some people are on icq, others on msn, some on aol. Other people are found only in forums.

There is bazillions of images and videos that are very hard to search for what you want in different sizes and qualities. Somehow websites today think that more words mean better website. There is in every website complex use of a lot of ads, flash, java, php, and complex working that makes websites seem heavy to load. It is easy today to lose yourself in a website.

Doesnt any one miss the days of internet being simple and usable?
Yes i am glad we have advanced in technology and video is easier to make and spread, and we have faster internet, but the information overload is just too much to handle.

 

[dukebound85]

i like it the way it is now and what it is becoming

 

[bc008]

i remember i didnt know you could type things in the web address bar, i thought you had to AOL keyword everything!

 

[dukebound85]

i remember those aol disks. thank God those are gone

 

[Killyp]

Yeh I remember those AOL disks too. I expect I've still got one somewhere.

I do remember getting on the internet back in the ol' days on Windows 3.1. That must have been 1995 or around then.

 

[miniConvert]

I miss some of the old AOL chat rooms from back in the late 90's. When I think about it, though, it wasn't such a golden age, really Onwards and upwards!

 

[velocityg4]

I do not miss the case specific web site addresses of the 90's. Where say http://www.Apple.com, http://www.apple.com, http://www.aPple.com etc... could be completely different websites.

I miss the internet being pretty much HTML only. I just can't stand all of the proliferation of Flash. Especially when flash adds absolutely zero value to the appearance of the website. I'm sure most of you have seen sites where HTML would have sufficed because the Flash is simply a static image. It just takes more bandwidth and uses a heck of a lot more CPU and RAM resources. The worst is flash embedded videos where a G4 800mhz will studder at 320x240 whereas in Quicktime that G4 720P HD video and almost play 1080. Heck I could capture video from my VCR on my Power Mac 7100/66AV with a high speed Quantum 2GB 68pin SCSI Hard Drive even the 68040 25mhz Quadra 660AV could be used with video.

I also miss how search engines paid attention to Boolean searches. It is really aggravating that they now see all words with the + sign and ignore "common" words. Sometimes "and", "or", "with" etc... are operators I want and are useful for narrowing down the search when I can not use quotation marks since I do not know the exact phrase! When they still paid attention to Boolean searches I could usually find the site I was looking for easily. Now depending on the topic it can be nearly impossible, especially when the topic is heavily advertised by resellers.

 

[ihabime]

I know its probably weird to you by what do I mean the old internet, but what i mean is the internet back in its early WWW days u know up until aroun 99 or 2000.

Whippersnapper

I remember the web back in 94, webpages took forever to load over my 33.8k modem and songs took half a day to DL from a news server. The only search engines were lycos and webcrawler and they were terrible, mostly you just dug through their web directories looking for something interesting.

Does anyone remember those Web Yellowpages books? I think i still have one in a box somewhere, it had to be 3 inches thick.

Just this month Time-Warner killed off its News servers, it's been years since i went to any groups, but it's still kinda sad that they're dying.

 

[JG271]

I don't miss embedded MIDI and websites that look like they were made on Microsoft publisher!

Seriously though, the multimedia aspects of the Internet are amazing, when i first saw youtube i thought it was incredible - now i can watch full length TV shows i've missed.
While i agree that some websites are very cluttered and content is spread out over a wide range of websites, the type of multimedia, content and communications that can be achieved and are available on the internet today are amazing.

 

[mr.light]

Gee. I'm old. I remember when it was all text. We used to have Bulletin Boards to chat and leave messages. Green text on a darker green screen etc.

 

[velocityg4]

Whippersnapper

I remember the web back in 94, webpages took forever to load over my 33.8k modem and songs took half a day to DL from a news server. The only search engines were lycos and webcrawler and they were terrible, mostly you just dug through their web directories looking for something interesting.

Does anyone remember those Web Yellowpages books? I think i still have one in a box somewhere, it had to be 3 inches thick.

Just this month Time-Warner killed off its News servers, it's been years since i went to any groups, but it's still kinda sad that they're dying.

33.8K weren't those things over like $500 then. I think I was using a Supra 9600 baud then. Heck even when I went the 28.8K most of the time AOL would only connect you at 2400 baud. Back when AOL had a good classifieds section, then they started charging to post ads and ruined it. This was when internet scams were virtually non-existent and you wouldn't think twice about selling a $1600 computer and shipping it C.O.D. . (For you whippersnappers that is Cash On Delivery not Call of Duty) And their was no taboo about pirating software. My AOL inbox was loaded with warez gotten through the Zelifcam chat room, there were no file size limits for e-mail yet. No I don't pirate anymore, back then the thought never crossed my mind that it was stealing. Not until Napster was sued did I think about it.

edit: looking at an Apple A+ insider from 1993 14.4KBPS modems were around $400 and I remember the 28.8's were a huge improvement and very expensive. Also a 1GB hard drive cost over $1000 in 93.

 

[macworkerbee]

I remember when the "internet" came to your house via an AOL disc. My younger brother actually thought that the internet WAS AOL!

 

[PlaceofDis]

i remember when it was first starting. but it was so much more limited than it is now... that i'm glad things move forward.

 

[ihabime]

edit: looking at an Apple A+ insider from 1993 14.4KBPS modems were around $400 and I remember the 28.8's were a huge improvement and very expensive. Also a 1GB hard drive cost over $1000 in 93.

I clearly recall upgrading to a 56k modem much later, it seemed like lightning

My first HD was a 40 mb external for my amiga 500, it took me almost a year to save up for it, now it probably wouldn't be enough to hold my email alone.

That is something I miss, text only email, whoever introduced html to email should be shot.

 

[Shaduu]

I remember 28.8k. Ah, good times.

However, todays' internet is far better; I have some bizarre love for AJAX.

 

[ProwlingTiger]

I still have a collection of those AOL discs somewhere for some reason....Good bonfire material

Yeah, I too miss the internet of back then

 

[Antares]

Yes! I miss the simplicity of the old web. It used to be fun to browse the net and just see what you came across. Now, there's almost no joy in that. The web feels "soulless." The web has gone from a personal, "people" created and "open" experience, to a corporate, conglomerated, overstimulated visual/sensory mess.

What I truly miss is the almost complete lack of advertising that the old web used to have. Now, it's almost like the web is composed of 50% ads and spam....all being shoved in your face to no end. I also concur with the overuse of Flash and other rich content. Many sites that use such things, absolutely do not need it. There are times when simplicity makes a more usable and efficient experience. A lot of website designers seem to forget that.

 

[cube]

That is not the old internet. The old internet is before the web.

 

[clubV]

the change from old to new was so smooth that it really didnt felt that something drastic has changed, thanx to you, you started this discussion, bcoz in my thoughts also i never gave it an importance
John

 

[sushi]

I was there before 300 baud modems were available to the typical consumer.

When the 300 baud modems came out we were so excited. Then when it went up to 2,400 baud we thought we were in tall cotton.

My friends hated receiving e-mail from me in those days. There was no backspace key like today. Whatever you typed went through to the other end, even though your screen didn't show the characters.

For example, let's say that I want to type this message:

Dear George, Lunch sounds good. See you tomorrow. Sam.

What my friends might see, depending on how my fingers worked that particular day, would be this:

Dee<BS>ar g<BS>Gorge<BS><BS><BS><BS>eoo<BS>rge, Lunch sounds good. Seee<BS> <BS>you tomorow. <BS><BS><BS><BS>rr<BS>ow. Sam.

This is just a simple example. There were other correction keys, such as the arrow keys that would show up as well. Sometimes my friends could barely read my messages. Sometimes, they would simply say, send again.

You had to really know how to navigate the Internet back then. Even downloading a file, picture, etc. required the use of a separate FTP programs.

So simple these days.

 

[spork183]

Then when it went up to 2,400 baud we thought we were in tall cotton.

I remember those. When my 9600 came, I was flying. You could load an entire page in under a minute if you had good phone connections.

 

[GSMiller]

Sometimes while feeling nostalgic I miss Web 1.0, but then I think about the wonders of broadband and wouldn't go back for anything.

...I miss the internet being pretty much HTML only. I just can't stand all of the proliferation of Flash. Especially when flash adds absolutely zero value to the appearance of the website. I'm sure most of you have seen sites where HTML would have sufficed because the Flash is simply a static image. It just takes more bandwidth and uses a heck of a lot more CPU and RAM resources. The worst is flash embedded videos where a G4 800mhz will studder at 320x240 whereas in Quicktime that G4 720P HD video and almost play 1080. Heck I could capture video from my VCR on my Power Mac 7100/66AV with a high speed Quantum 2GB 68pin SCSI Hard Drive even the 68040 25mhz Quadra 660AV could be used with video...

Ugh, me too. In my opinion a website that is designed solely with Flash is a poorly executed and totally pointless website.

i remember i didnt know you could type things in the web address bar, i thought you had to AOL keyword everything!

Me too! I didn't understand how there was an internet without AOL

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I remember back in the day, coming across a website that had "Dreamweaver4.zip" as a direct link. In the zip file was the full application.

And whomever said that the internet felt more personalized and now it's more soulless hit the nail on the head!

 

[velocityg4]

Ugh, me too. In my opinion a website that is designed solely with Flash is a poorly executed and totally pointless website.

One of the most annoying things is having to right click flash objects to allow to be displayed them just when I was looking for a simple text description, picture or download.

I use Flashblock in Firefox.

 

[sushi]

The worst is flash embedded videos

Not a fan of flash in the least.

I remember those. When my 9600 came, I was flying. You could load an entire page in under a minute if you had good phone connections.

We were rocking then!

Ugh, me too. In my opinion a website that is designed solely with Flash is a poorly executed and totally pointless website.

Likewise.

And whomever said that the internet felt more personalized and now it's more soulless hit the nail on the head!

Agree.

One of the most annoying things is having to right click flash objects to allow to be displayed them just when I was looking for a simple text description, picture or download.

Sometimes I wish flash would just go away.

Thankfully, it seems that most sites allow you to skip the flash intro.