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Most of the money in online services in the mid-90s was being made by companies like AOL, CompuServe, etc. [citation needed] WWW was essentially one competing

Most of the money in online services in the mid-90s was being made by companies like AOL, CompuServe, etc. [citation needed] WWW was essentially one competing protocol/platform among many. When its dominance was all but assured by the late 90s, indeed, many companies started trying to make money directly on the web, and most of them collapsed and took with them all the VC funding that was being poured into the virtual black hole of the "new paradigm" of unbounded e-business growth. For a time, Microsoft practically did own the inter- and post-bubble WWW with IE 5-6, but their profits were through OS and Office sales, not web revenue, and e-retailers of various sorts were the main players making money directly from WWW. I think today's web, which perhaps started somewhere in the 2005 period with the rise of social media giants and the dominance of online advertising ala Google, is definitely a change, and brought with it the flip.

rmc 14y ago
somewhere in the 2005 period with the rise of social media giants and the dominance of online advertising ala Google And the rise of AJAX and client side javascript web applications and made the web much better. Gmail was one of the first "ajax" applications that got big./
- rayiner 14y ago
  The web was far better before AJAX and client-side javascript. Pages were actually in HTML, fonts were adjustable, and ads were tiny and unobtrusive.
  - GhotiFish 14y ago
    That post just confused me greatly In the modern web, pages are still in HTML, font's can still be adjusted, and ads are automatically filtered out.
    - rayiner 14y ago
      In modern web pages, much of the content is delivered through AJAX and isn't in the actual HTML of the page, adjusting fonts often breaks layouts, and for people who can't figure out how to use AdBlock (or are on a mobile device), ads are big, obtrusive, hover over the page content affairs.
      - markisonfire 14y ago
        I think you're thinking about the OLD web, when adjusting fonts would break table-based, graphic-intensive websites. Unless you want to go even further back - to a time when gif backgrounds of the stars were common and text was displayed through Comic Sans.
  - thomasz 14y ago
    > ads were tiny and unobtrusive Huh? I remember loads and loads of pop ups
  - dasil003 14y ago
    You're just seeing history through rose-colored glasses. Nostalgia is a pleasant diversion, but when you start believing that things were truly so much better in the past you have a serious problem.
  - InclinedPlane 14y ago
    No, I remember the web back then, it was terrible. Banner ads everywhere. Pop-up ads too. Content that worked in some browsers but not all. Horrific typography and color choices. Flash based "mystery meat" interfaces. Geocities sites were not some special dark corner of the internet they were representative examples of the extant design of the era.
  - derleth 14y ago
    > The web was far better before AJAX and client-side javascript. Ah, yes: Java applets that made your system crawl. Flash interfaces that likely 'worked', but had been designed by an alien with no comprehension of human cognition or interface design. Text that was delivered as a set of lossy JPEGs because the designer really, really wanted a font that was only installed on a dozen people's computers. (Good luck accessing that if you were blind or, more likely, stuck behind a slow, unreliable dial-up connection.) Pop-up ads your browser was too stupid to block. Endlessly looping MIDI making you forever hate Skye Boat Song and The Entertainer. Good times, good times.
    - eurleif 14y ago
      >Flash interfaces that likely 'worked', but had been designed by an alien with no comprehension of human cognition or interface design. How is bad interface design a problem specific to Flash? Surely you can create a bad interface with modern tools just as easily?
      - derleth 14y ago
        Not just bad interface design: Incomprehensible interface design. Interfaces which have nothing in common with any other interface the user has seen before. With HTML you at least have a stronger pressure to use the same text boxes everyone else does, for example: There's more standardization of basic building blocks. You can go whole-hog with reinventing the square wheel only this time making it diamond-shaped and made out of cream cheese, but it's harder. In Flash, apparently, there's less of a counterbalance to going off entirely on your own and making something only you can understand.

rmc 14y ago

somewhere in the 2005 period with the rise of social media giants and the dominance of online advertising ala Google And the rise of AJAX and client side javascript web applications and made the web much better. Gmail was one of the first "ajax" applications that got big./

rayiner 14y ago
The web was far better before AJAX and client-side javascript. Pages were actually in HTML, fonts were adjustable, and ads were tiny and unobtrusive.
- GhotiFish 14y ago
  That post just confused me greatly In the modern web, pages are still in HTML, font's can still be adjusted, and ads are automatically filtered out.
  - rayiner 14y ago
    In modern web pages, much of the content is delivered through AJAX and isn't in the actual HTML of the page, adjusting fonts often breaks layouts, and for people who can't figure out how to use AdBlock (or are on a mobile device), ads are big, obtrusive, hover over the page content affairs.
    - markisonfire 14y ago
      I think you're thinking about the OLD web, when adjusting fonts would break table-based, graphic-intensive websites. Unless you want to go even further back - to a time when gif backgrounds of the stars were common and text was displayed through Comic Sans.
- thomasz 14y ago
  > ads were tiny and unobtrusive Huh? I remember loads and loads of pop ups
- dasil003 14y ago
  You're just seeing history through rose-colored glasses. Nostalgia is a pleasant diversion, but when you start believing that things were truly so much better in the past you have a serious problem.
- InclinedPlane 14y ago
  No, I remember the web back then, it was terrible. Banner ads everywhere. Pop-up ads too. Content that worked in some browsers but not all. Horrific typography and color choices. Flash based "mystery meat" interfaces. Geocities sites were not some special dark corner of the internet they were representative examples of the extant design of the era.
- derleth 14y ago
  > The web was far better before AJAX and client-side javascript. Ah, yes: Java applets that made your system crawl. Flash interfaces that likely 'worked', but had been designed by an alien with no comprehension of human cognition or interface design. Text that was delivered as a set of lossy JPEGs because the designer really, really wanted a font that was only installed on a dozen people's computers. (Good luck accessing that if you were blind or, more likely, stuck behind a slow, unreliable dial-up connection.) Pop-up ads your browser was too stupid to block. Endlessly looping MIDI making you forever hate Skye Boat Song and The Entertainer. Good times, good times.
  - eurleif 14y ago
    >Flash interfaces that likely 'worked', but had been designed by an alien with no comprehension of human cognition or interface design. How is bad interface design a problem specific to Flash? Surely you can create a bad interface with modern tools just as easily?
    - derleth 14y ago
      Not just bad interface design: Incomprehensible interface design. Interfaces which have nothing in common with any other interface the user has seen before. With HTML you at least have a stronger pressure to use the same text boxes everyone else does, for example: There's more standardization of basic building blocks. You can go whole-hog with reinventing the square wheel only this time making it diamond-shaped and made out of cream cheese, but it's harder. In Flash, apparently, there's less of a counterbalance to going off entirely on your own and making something only you can understand.