I'm not sure were it would be on a timeline compared to Encarta, but I'd add the hay days of Flash on the web to that. Much like you describe there was such a s

I'm not sure were it would be on a timeline compared to Encarta, but I'd add the hay days of Flash on the web to that. Much like you describe there was such a sense of fun in those days. Flash had enough abstraction and was simple enough for anyone to create weird animations and sites with interesting interactions. The website feels like a stale medium today. I guess it's just too important to mess with nowadays. Pragmatism and familiarity rule supreme. PS. I'm sure I'm biased because nostalgia. Flash web was a nightmare in many (most?) respects.