Hacker News with Generative AI: Internet History

Searchception (mojeek.com)
In the early days of the internet, there was a clear distinction between browsers and search engines. You opened a browser like Netscape or Internet Explorer to go to a website. If you didn’t know the address, you visited a search engine to find it. But somewhere along the way, that clarity was engineered out of existence.

Search Engines, Internet History, Web Browsers, Technology

15 points by Sami_Lehtinen 15 days ago | 7 comments

We are still using 88x31 buttons (ultrasciencelabs.com)
If you surf the modern "small web" to any extent you've encountered 88x31 buttons - a staple of late 90s and early 2000's websites1 undergoing a bit of a revival. The Neocities community especially seems to have truly embraced them. 88x31 buttons have a long history on the web, straddling the worlds of advertising and the personal web.

Web Design, Retro Technology, Internet History, Aesthetics

142 points by PaulHoule 20 days ago | 55 comments

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 49 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 54 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-_- 63 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 102 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 114 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 116 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 135 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 147 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 149 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 152 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 166 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 166 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 169 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 191 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 223 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 227 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 270 days ago | 141 comments

What happened to blogs (mpmisko.github.io)

Blogging, Web Development, Internet History

70 points by mpmisko 287 days ago | 61 comments

What the internet looked like in 1994 (fastcompany.com)

Internet History, Web Design, 1990s

39 points by skilled 292 days ago | 18 comments

In Search of the Lost Web (maraoz.com)