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I spent years browsing the web before it had any advertising on it at all. I remember the first ads, they were called "banners" and everyone raged out about how

I spent years browsing the web before it had any advertising on it at all. I remember the first ads, they were called "banners" and everyone raged out about how awful they were. But we had no idea just how truly awful they could become, and that in fact the entire infrastructure of the internet would bend so that tracking and advertising became omniscient and pervasive. What a nightmare. For a few years there though it kind of looked like the web was going to remain free and open forever. Back when we were all so young.

smt88 7y ago
When did it not have ads? I remember seeing ads as early as 1993. AOL's browser was full of them. Sometimes they were just links at the bottom of a page thanking a sponsor, though.
- moltensodium 7y ago
  AOL's garden (and Prodigy's before that) was always packed with ads from the first version, it was one of the reasons I hated AOL and was always just trying to get a simple TCP connection so I could just browse the web instead. I don't think AOL shipped a normal browser until later than '93, they hated the web for obvious reasons and were actively fighting against it in those early years. They had something resembling a browser you could just type AOL keywords into, but that was only for their content. I remember I had to make a phone call to get a config change for a normal TCP connection to browse the web in some versions, that's how locked down AOL was.
- boring_twenties 7y ago
  I feel like if you have to actively look for it at the bottom of the page, it doesn't really qualify as an "ad" in the sense we're talking about here.
NikkiA 7y ago
Hit the monkey to win!
- bitwize 7y ago
  Congratulations! You've been chosen to win a free iPod!
  - qzx_pierri 7y ago
    Everyone fell for those at least once
- taneq 7y ago
  Install Bonza Buddy!!
JohnFen 7y ago
Advertising drove me away from watching television and listening to the radio. And those aren't even the nasty, spying sort of ads that we have on the web. I really see the day coming when I can no longer defend myself against advertisers enough to make it worth continuing to use the web at all.
- gdulli 7y ago
  From my point of view, cable has the easiest kind of advertising to fully skip. It's distinct from programming and can be fast forwarded. I find that preferable to the web and streaming. Being manipulated by unskippable previews and algorithms using personal data about me to show me an Amazon or Netflix controlled browse interface that tries to funnel me into watching what they consider optimal.
scarface74 7y ago
The first banner ad was in 1994. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-first-ever-banner-ad-on-the-web/523728/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-f... The first web browser was introduced in 1990. https://starry.com/blog/inside-the-internet/what-was-the-first-web-browser https://starry.com/blog/inside-the-internet/what-was-the-fir... Advertising has been a part of the web for almost its entire history.
- taneq 7y ago
  Therefore it would seem that the years the parent poster spent browsing an adless world were in the range 1990-1994.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    And the web was basically useless to find any information back then.
    - moltensodium 7y ago
      Not at all. It was a magical wonderland of directories, forums, and secret links you'd pass around between friends. For the first time ever you could type in an address at the top of a window and just go there. We had never seen anything like that before, everything previously was a walled off program or service that hid everything under the hood. Pretending advertising was built in from the beginning is just dishonest. It was a shift in the contract, we all got swept up in the early ad free web and it was amazing at first. In these early years I learned so much, there was a pirated encyclopedia which was the first thing I downloaded, followed by learning how to shave, how to speak spanish, how to do my homework, how to tie a tie. The first time I got paid as a web developer was in 1993, still more than a year before the first ads, and like five years before ads actually started appearing in significant numbers. None of this advertising is necessary, it was all just tacked on by corporations. This is to say nothing of tracking and profiling and targeting, which is simply evil.
      - 7y ago

smt88 7y ago

When did it not have ads? I remember seeing ads as early as 1993. AOL's browser was full of them. Sometimes they were just links at the bottom of a page thanking a sponsor, though.

moltensodium 7y ago
AOL's garden (and Prodigy's before that) was always packed with ads from the first version, it was one of the reasons I hated AOL and was always just trying to get a simple TCP connection so I could just browse the web instead. I don't think AOL shipped a normal browser until later than '93, they hated the web for obvious reasons and were actively fighting against it in those early years. They had something resembling a browser you could just type AOL keywords into, but that was only for their content. I remember I had to make a phone call to get a config change for a normal TCP connection to browse the web in some versions, that's how locked down AOL was.
boring_twenties 7y ago
I feel like if you have to actively look for it at the bottom of the page, it doesn't really qualify as an "ad" in the sense we're talking about here.

NikkiA 7y ago

Hit the monkey to win!

bitwize 7y ago
Congratulations! You've been chosen to win a free iPod!
- qzx_pierri 7y ago
  Everyone fell for those at least once
taneq 7y ago
Install Bonza Buddy!!

JohnFen 7y ago

Advertising drove me away from watching television and listening to the radio. And those aren't even the nasty, spying sort of ads that we have on the web. I really see the day coming when I can no longer defend myself against advertisers enough to make it worth continuing to use the web at all.

gdulli 7y ago
From my point of view, cable has the easiest kind of advertising to fully skip. It's distinct from programming and can be fast forwarded. I find that preferable to the web and streaming. Being manipulated by unskippable previews and algorithms using personal data about me to show me an Amazon or Netflix controlled browse interface that tries to funnel me into watching what they consider optimal.

scarface74 7y ago

The first banner ad was in 1994. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-first-ever-banner-ad-on-the-web/523728/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-f... The first web browser was introduced in 1990. https://starry.com/blog/inside-the-internet/what-was-the-first-web-browser https://starry.com/blog/inside-the-internet/what-was-the-fir... Advertising has been a part of the web for almost its entire history.

taneq 7y ago
Therefore it would seem that the years the parent poster spent browsing an adless world were in the range 1990-1994.
- scarface74 7y ago
  And the web was basically useless to find any information back then.
  - moltensodium 7y ago
    Not at all. It was a magical wonderland of directories, forums, and secret links you'd pass around between friends. For the first time ever you could type in an address at the top of a window and just go there. We had never seen anything like that before, everything previously was a walled off program or service that hid everything under the hood. Pretending advertising was built in from the beginning is just dishonest. It was a shift in the contract, we all got swept up in the early ad free web and it was amazing at first. In these early years I learned so much, there was a pirated encyclopedia which was the first thing I downloaded, followed by learning how to shave, how to speak spanish, how to do my homework, how to tie a tie. The first time I got paid as a web developer was in 1993, still more than a year before the first ads, and like five years before ads actually started appearing in significant numbers. None of this advertising is necessary, it was all just tacked on by corporations. This is to say nothing of tracking and profiling and targeting, which is simply evil.
    - 7y ago