Web at 25

[Buck]

Pew report, interesting:

http://www.pewinternet.org/files/2014/02/PIP_25th-anniversary-of-the-Web_022714_pdf.pdf

 

[Football_Bat]

The World Wide Web turns 25 on March 12, 2014. It is one of the most important and heavily-
used parts of the network of computer networks that make up the internet. Indeed, the invention
of the Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee was instrumental in turning the internet from a geeky data-
transfer system embraced by specialists and a small number of enthusiasts into a mass-adopted
technology easily used by hundreds of millions around the world.

I never knew Al Gore fancied himself a knight with a pseudonym.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Not to threadjack, but when did the people here use the Internet for the first time?

I used email as a freshman in college in 1992. When I was a junior in college I was sent a floppy disc with ESPN SportsZone on it and when I loaded it, I think that was the first time I had an Internet Browser on my computer. AOL was a year later and that was the first time I "surfed" regularly.

It makes me feel old just to think about.

 

[Riptide]

Not until 1996 for me. And then I was fast-tracked because I got an Internet job. So at first I was feeding content to the Internet before I knew anything about it.

 

[Vombatus]

1983 for me. Before www and before Al Gore carbon-farted.

 

[bigpern23]

I started in 1994, basically just using chat rooms to talk sports on the library computers at school. Just your basic green text on black background sort of thing. Soon we were playing chess online, checking sports scores and trying to decide if Alta Vista or Yahoo! had the better search engine for the, um, finer things on the internet.

 

[Songbird]

'97. First email was on Excite.

 

[John]

I'd guess 1994 or 95. I didn't get my first computer (Gateway, piece of poo) until 1996.

 

[exmediahack]

Late 1995 - during an NFL game. Amazed that ESPN SportsZone was updating scores in real time.

Then I tried to find pictures of Kari Wuhrer...and away we went.

 

[Batman]

Probably 1995 or '96, when I was in college. I remember being part of some online, text-based web community thing on the library computers -- and, of course, discovering the magic of internet porn. There was a computer lab that had a terminal that sat in a corner where your back was to the wall. I'm amazed the keys weren't all stuck together.

It's weird to think I was part of the last generation of kids that grew up without the internet being a part of their lives. Today's kids know how to run a smartphone by the time they're in first grade.
I also kick myself for not getting in on the ground floor. I don't think I have the mind to be a computer engineer or programmer, but there's probably plenty of programs I could've started working with in their infancy that would've made things a heck of a lot easier to grasp -- and myself more marketable -- if I'd mastered their 1.0 versions.

 

[Shoeless Joe]

My first exposure was sometime in 94, and I got hooked up at home late that year or early 95. I remember thinking Web Crawler was the bomb.

 

[Monday Morning Sportswriter]

Email in 1993 during my freshman year of college, which is also when I found this place, which some of you may have also been:

whip.isca.uiowa.edu

The www was the next year when the computer labs got actual PCs. I bought AOL for the computer I bought at home. It was a long-distance number.