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This article is part of the Joy Gems series which originally appeared in The Joy Gems Newsletter and/or The Home Page Helper Network on ryze.com, a business networking community. |
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What a ridiculous subject I'm taking on this week, my Joy Gems readers but I could not resist. It being my birthday I thought I'd look back on something other than myself.
We have come mighty far with all things web over the past 10 years or so. My first experience with a browser was probably that Mosaic thing that Prodigy built into their online service. Maybe this was 1996.
What I saw and what I experienced was startling. Just by clicking I could access computers and information from around the world. That it took seconds (usually minutes - I was cruising along at a 9600 bps modem) was irrelevant. I just could not believe my eyes. It was pure magic. How did it work? How was a web page made? What was a web site? Who was doing all of this?
That first browser was primitive and so were the designs, such as they were, at the time. Web pages had gray backgrounds, black text, blue links. But it didn't matter. It was an epiphany. My life was never going to be the same - but neither was anyone elses.
So, my gift to you is The History Of The Web. Follow the Timeline link. Some of the emulators on the right side of the page will let you look at web pages as they would appear in legacy browsers. And even if those emulators don't work it's still worth the time to look back and see those old logos that you've already forgotten about.
Have fun!!
