Hacker News with Generative AI: Web History

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 38 days ago | 1 comments

"read, write, own" web (geocities.institute)
Those who don’t remember the web before platforms, tend to believe that for 10 years web users stared at their monitors in anticipation. Actually they were made to believe it. First by Web 2.0 proponents, and nowadays by aggressive Web3 campaigns that rewrite the history by stating that Web1 was a dull, passive, read only place.

Web History, Web 2.0, Web3, Decentralization

10 points by speckx 107 days ago | 0 comments

We're losing our digital history. Can the Internet Archive save it? (bbc.com)
Research shows 25% of web pages posted between 2013 and 2023 have vanished. A few organisations are racing to save the echoes of the web, but new risks threaten their very existence.

Internet Archive, Digital Preservation, Web History, Data Loss

55 points by yamrzou 122 days ago | 8 comments

We're losing our digital history. Can the Internet Archive save it? (bbc.com)
Research shows 25% of web pages posted between 2013 and 2023 have vanished. A few organisations are racing to save the echoes of the web, but new risks threaten their very existence.

Internet Archive, Digital Preservation, Web History, Data Loss

6 points by redbell 123 days ago | 0 comments

I won't be renewing my Pinboard subscription (kateva.org)
In the years following the Great Recession, from 2010 to 2013, many web services went offline. In retrospect that was the end of the Berners-Lee web.

Web Services, Online Services, Subscriptions, Web History

192 points by leotravis10 127 days ago | 95 comments

The story, as best I can remember, of the origin of Mosaic and Netscape [video] (pmarca.substack.com)