4 ms·
Maybe he doesn't mention it because he didn't think it was revolutionary when it first appeared. From https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/14/news/skeptics-cite-ove
by capableweb 4y ago
Maybe he doesn't mention it because he didn't think it was revolutionary when it first appeared.
From https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/14/news/skeptics-cite-overload-of-useless-information-internet-arrives-at-a.html https://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/14/news/skeptics-cite-overlo... (https://archive.is/r4F8T https://archive.is/r4F8T)
> Even Bill Gates, the founder and chairman of Microsoft Corp. and widely regarded as the crown prince of the World Wide Web, was taken unawares by the Internet's grassroots acceptance.
> In his book, "The Road Ahead" (not available on-line), Mr. Gates admitted that he believed the technology for "killer applications" was inadequate to lure consumers to the Internet.
Of course, like any smart person at the time, he changed his views as the internet became more popular and eventually mainstream.
- adventured 4y agoGates favored an approach he (and others) referred to as the information superhighway vs the post 1980s modern Internet. He regarded the Internet as a precursor to what he called the information superhighway in the book. It's not that he didn't see something equivalent to the Internet happening, he disagreed with exactly how it would look (who would own/control it is more likely what he had in mind given the context; I think he wanted a more closed off network that companies like Microsoft could thoroughly dominate). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_(Gates_book) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Ahead_(Gates_book)
- doctor_eval 4y agoHe absolutely wanted a closed, proprietary network, and that’s also what he built: MSN. But it didn’t work, so they recycled the name into the MSN we know today. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_Dial-up https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSN_Dial-up
- spookthesunset 4y agoWhich of course got commingled with “Live”, MSN the dialup, “MSNBC”, and even active desktop (IIRC)… probably way more I’m forgetting too.
- doctor_eval 4y agoI’d forgotten all that stuff. It’s weird, they usually can’t keep the name of their products the same for more than a couple of years at a time, but this one lasted decades for some reason.
- Gud 4y agoUhm, crown prince of the WWW? Microsoft was actively working against the open web and instead they were trying to push their crappier Microsoft Networks(or whatever it was called) in the early 90s.