Hacker News with Generative AI: Internet History

GeoCities in 1995: Building a Home Page on the Internet (cybercultural.com)
GeoCities, known throughout most of 1995 as Beverly Hills Internet, was one of the first commercial internet services to make it easy for people to publish a home page on the World Wide Web.
Internet History, Web Development, 1990s, GeoCities
166 points by cheeaun 26 days ago | 85 comments
The web was always about redistribution of power. Let's bring that back (werd.io)
Web Development, Decentralization, Internet History
45 points by benwerd 31 days ago | 14 comments
Twitch's new storage limits will purge swaths of Internet gaming history (arstechnica.com)
Amazon-owned platform says "costly" historical archives don't drive "engagement."
Twitch, Gaming, Streaming, Internet History, Archives
58 points by 01-_- 40 days ago | 45 comments
Personalized voice recordings by Elwood "You've got mail!" Edwards (2024) (jgc.org)
If you're old enough to have ever used, seen or overheard the once ubiquitous AOL software you'll have heard the voice of Elwood Edwards.
Voice Acting, Internet History, Nostalgia
96 points by fzliu 79 days ago | 33 comments
Computer History Resources (landley.net)
This is a bunch of links to computer history pages, research for a book I'm writing. I've provided links to all the originals, as well as local mirrors because I've gotten sick of links going down a year or so after I bookmark them. (I'm sorting through my bookmark list in my copious free time and finding all these dead links from 1998, and it's annoying because some of these were GOOD. Even CNN culls its archives. Sigh...)
Computer History, Web Archives, Internet History, Links
20 points by memalign 91 days ago | 2 comments
Tell HN: John Friel my father, internet pioneer and creator of QModem, has died (ycombinator.com)
Tell HN: John Friel my father, internet pioneer and creator of QModem, has died
Obituary, Internet History, Technology, Software
1092 points by AaronFriel 93 days ago | 98 comments
StumbleUpon pioneered the way we use the internet (bbc.com)
Before there was TikTok's For You Page or the Newsfeed on Facebook, there was StumbleUpon – a website (and later a browser extension) founded in 2001 that worked by ushering users down online rabbit holes of semi-randomised websites.
Social Media, Web History, Technology, Internet History
12 points by billybuckwheat 112 days ago | 1 comments
Ask HN: How to Resurrect a Site from Archive.org? (ycombinator.com)
I recently bought the expired domain of a niche interest site because the previous owner was determined to let it die and did not want to put any effort in it anymore.
Web Development, Domain Names, Web Archives, Internet History
90 points by rrr_oh_man 124 days ago | 50 comments
The Rise of Bluesky (cacm.acm.org)
The Internet has been hosting social conversations around discussion topics and common interests since at least the inception of Usenet News.
Social Media, Decentralized Networks, Internet History
46 points by g0xA52A2A 126 days ago | 77 comments
A Brief History of the Internet's Biggest BGP Incidents (2023) (kentik.com)
Stretching back to the AS7007 leak of 1997, this comprehensive blog post covers the most notable and significant BGP incidents in the history of the internet, from traffic-disrupting BGP leaks to crypto-stealing BGP hijacks.
Internet History, BGP, Network Security
5 points by belter 129 days ago | 0 comments
"You've Got " AOL sound files (aolsucks.org)
In 1995, Wired magazine's AOL forum located Elwood Edwards -- whose voice recorded the sound file "You've Got Mail" -- and had him record ten additional sound files.
Nostalgia, Internet History, Sound Design, Audio Files
18 points by ColinWright 142 days ago | 3 comments
The Internet Gopher from Minnesota (abortretry.fail)
In the early 1990s, the nascent Internet was commonly, and often sensationally, referred to as the Information Superhighway despite the very acute feelings of vicarious embarrassment that the usage of this term aroused in young people of the time.
Internet History, Culture, Humor
108 points by rbanffy 143 days ago | 43 comments
Man behind AOL's "You've Got Mail" voice dead at 74 (cnn.com)
Obituary, Voice Acting, Internet History
29 points by gaws 146 days ago | 2 comments
The Sound of the Dialup, Pictured (2012) (windytan.com)
If you ever connected to the Internet before the 2000s, you probably remember that it made a peculiar sound. But despite becoming so familiar, it remained a mystery for most of us. What do these sounds mean?
Internet History, Sound, Technology, Nostalgia
25 points by steamingpenis 168 days ago | 2 comments
Google Has Officially Killed Cache Links (gizmodo.com)
25 years ago, the internet was kludged together with duct tape and a dream. Sometimes typing in a URL brought up a website. Sometimes things were just broken. Google, then just a bizarrely named startup, would soon offer a solution. The company added “cache” links to its search results, which brought up a previously saved version of web pages. Now the internet is mature, Google is among history’s most powerful conglomerates, and as of today, the cache link is officially kaput.
Google, Internet History, Web Development, Search Engines
234 points by f_allwein 200 days ago | 113 comments
New Feature Alert: Access Archived Webpages Directly Through Google Search (archive.org)
In a significant step forward for digital preservation, Google Search is now making it easier than ever to access the past. Starting today, users everywhere can view archived versions of webpages directly through Google Search, with a simple link to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Search, Web Archives, Digital Preservation, Internet History
91 points by xnx 203 days ago | 17 comments
Was the Internet created to survive a nuclear strike? (2022) (siliconfolklore.com)
Internet History, Cold War, Nuclear War
224 points by edward 247 days ago | 141 comments
What happened to blogs (mpmisko.github.io)
Blogging, Web Development, Internet History
70 points by mpmisko 264 days ago | 61 comments
What the internet looked like in 1994 (fastcompany.com)
Internet History, Web Design, 1990s
39 points by skilled 269 days ago | 18 comments
In Search of the Lost Web (maraoz.com)
Web Archives, Internet History, Information Retrieval
12 points by maraoz 302 days ago | 1 comments
Ask HN: What do you fondly recall about the early days of the Internet? (ycombinator.com)
Nostalgia, Internet History, Ask HN
15 points by johndavid9991 308 days ago | 42 comments
38% of webpages that existed in 2013 are no longer accessible a decade later (pewresearch.org)
Web Archiving, Internet History, Digital Preservation, Data Analysis, Research
231 points by Kye 320 days ago | 179 comments
Archie, the Internet's first search engine, is rescued and running (arstechnica.com)
Internet History, Search Engines, Technology, Web Development
42 points by DamnInteresting 320 days ago | 4 comments
Archie, the Internet's first search engine, is rescued and running (arstechnica.com)
Internet History, Search Engines, Technology
14 points by airhangerf15 321 days ago | 0 comments
The Antisocial Network: How the 90s Internet Died Like Diaryland (2014) (vice.com)
Social Media, Internet History, Culture, Nostalgia
31 points by vector_spaces 331 days ago | 56 comments
My secret life as an 11-year-old BBS sysop (2022) (arstechnica.com)
Personal Stories, Nostalgia, Technology, Internet History, BBS
91 points by someotherperson 334 days ago | 15 comments
First post: A history of online public messaging (arstechnica.com)
Internet History, Social Media, Communication
23 points by sohkamyung 338 days ago | 7 comments
World Wide Web (1991) (cern.ch)
Internet History, CERN, Web Development
279 points by geuis 341 days ago | 125 comments