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Is it as young as that? I'm surprised. One of the earliest web sites I can remember is this one: "The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything" http://stef

Is it as young as that? I'm surprised. One of the earliest web sites I can remember is this one: "The Really Big Button That Doesn't Do Anything" http://stefangagne.com/spatulacity/button.htm http://stefangagne.com/spatulacity/button.htm I think I was led there via "Yahoo Cool Site Of The Day" All the comments are still there! I remember laughing at the "stereo fell off the bureau" one. A comment I left there in 1994 is still there.

ghaff 6y ago
>Is it as young as that? I'm surprised. And, really, 30 years overstates it. You need another 5 years before all the pieces came together to make something that really looks like the modern web and maybe even a couple more before it really started having an effect on even tech-savvy audiences.
bserge 6y ago
Indeed. I sometimes remember how living was before the Internet, before a computer in every house and in every pocket. Paper maps, incandescent lighbulbs with less lumen output than any smartphone, CRT displays, LCD panels as thick as a MacBook Air (a modern OLED is as thin as paper!), libraries with actual books (that never had enough information), payphones... I'd say things got a lot better :D
- ghaff 6y ago
  >that never had enough information One of the things that periodically strikes me as someone who was a product manager from the mid-80s through the 90s is how hard it was to get information. For example, I remember we paid one company a fair bit of money to fax us any data sheets they had on specific competitive products when we were about to do a product announcement. (Oh, and we paid them for each category of computer systems we wanted access to information on.) Basically, everyone sent this firm their data sheets because we couldn't really ask each other directly. That was how one did competitive analysis. I think if I were to go back in time, I'd quit after a week because I would feel I simply didn't have access to the information I needed to do my job.
sillysaurusx 6y ago
Awww, I'm so disappointed that the guestbook is broken. Guestbooks were one of the best features of the early web. And by "best" I mean "pointless nostalgia," but... :)
barbarbar 6y ago
That site is fast. Even on a mobile connection.

ghaff 6y ago

>Is it as young as that? I'm surprised. And, really, 30 years overstates it. You need another 5 years before all the pieces came together to make something that really looks like the modern web and maybe even a couple more before it really started having an effect on even tech-savvy audiences.

bserge 6y ago

Indeed. I sometimes remember how living was before the Internet, before a computer in every house and in every pocket. Paper maps, incandescent lighbulbs with less lumen output than any smartphone, CRT displays, LCD panels as thick as a MacBook Air (a modern OLED is as thin as paper!), libraries with actual books (that never had enough information), payphones... I'd say things got a lot better :D

ghaff 6y ago
>that never had enough information One of the things that periodically strikes me as someone who was a product manager from the mid-80s through the 90s is how hard it was to get information. For example, I remember we paid one company a fair bit of money to fax us any data sheets they had on specific competitive products when we were about to do a product announcement. (Oh, and we paid them for each category of computer systems we wanted access to information on.) Basically, everyone sent this firm their data sheets because we couldn't really ask each other directly. That was how one did competitive analysis. I think if I were to go back in time, I'd quit after a week because I would feel I simply didn't have access to the information I needed to do my job.

sillysaurusx 6y ago

Awww, I'm so disappointed that the guestbook is broken. Guestbooks were one of the best features of the early web. And by "best" I mean "pointless nostalgia," but... :)

barbarbar 6y ago

That site is fast. Even on a mobile connection.