Old Net Gems

Here are some of my favourite old Web sites that I've found, as well as some cool stuff about the old Web. Enjoy a trip through this little card catalogue of the Web's history!

4degreez - I found this via some quiz or something, which I sadly can't find. Even though it was last updated in 2010, almost a decade after the old Web's prime, its design still reminds me of the early-mid 2000s, and it's a really cool time capsule to the past, especially the Internet Explorer 4.0 recommendation!

Welcome to Netscape - A welcome page to Netscape Navigator that somehow, as of my writing this, is still up the better part of two decades later! I especially love the little graphic up the top with the Mozilla lizard. The "learn more about the Internet" page is especially interesting, and I was saddened, though not shocked, to discover that the links there are dead.

Confessions of a Mac to PC Convert - A parody by an old Web-site called Low End Mac of an old Microsoft Web-page that, as far as I can tell, has been lost to time. (The original, at least.) I thought the parody was lost to time, too, since I couldn't find either archived anywhere on-line, but found it on my hard drive somewhere! So I popped it back on-line for the sake of archival. And I think it's pretty funny!

Barebones Guide to HTML - An old guide to HTML 4.0 that I found on the Web recently. It was last updated in 2011, apparently, but looks straight out of 2001 or so, and still mentions Geocities and Angelfire in some places.

Stargirl.org - I found this from some other Neocities user's Web-site, and I'll give them a mention here if I can remember who. Anyways, this is where I found some of the quizzes I have on my Quiz Results page, and it's just an interesting site in general! It doesn't have the same late 90s-early 00s aesthetic I prefer, and seems more MySpacey, but it's cool nonetheless! This is a capture from 2005, as it's sadly been updated to some bland Web 2.0 aesthetic today, and doesn't have the cool old content.

Alf's Room - I was debating including this one since it's still getting updated, but according to the home-page (Google translated - most of the site's in Japanese) it's been up for over 25 years, so I think it still counts. Anyways, it's a really cool, old-Web style personal site, and it's the origin of that Michaelsoft Binbows meme I saw on Quora that one time. (Yeah, I had a Quora phase.) Anyways, it's super cool! Though unfortunately, I have to rely on Google Translate to see most of it, since there's only one page in English.

GetSmile - I was looking for those old AOL/MSN smilies (you know, the little tiny ones!) to put in an e-mail when I found this! It's a little icon pack for MSN, whose Web-site was last updated in 2008. I wonder if you can stil buy it... I don't have MSN, since I use a Mac, but I know there's an MSN revival project called Escargot, so if any of y'all have MSN Messenger and $25 to blow, test it out and let me know if it works by e-mailing me here! Anyways, a lot of these look very particular and probably not that useful, so I wonder if their testimonials are actually true. Speaking of their emoticons, what the heck is with that dog on the home-page?!? They make the cat look life-like, but they make the dog look like THAT?!? Anyways, yeah. This is pretty interesting.

Meg's Place - A super cool old personal site from the early 2000s! Sadly, it's not up anymore, but thankfully it's been archived! This site probably rivals my own in terms of sheer amount of random stuff on it, LOL. But it's super cool and really fun to just browse through! This really feels like something that somebody might make on Neocities today.

Michelle Lynn's Garden - A site from around the Y2K era about the life of a trans woman of the time. It talks about her life and transition and it's super interesting!

First Generation K-Pop Wallpapers - This contains a bunch of desktop backgrounds of first-generation k-pop boygroups, specifically Shinhwa, H.O.T. and Fly to the Sky! I especially love some of their H.O.T. backgrounds!

The Ultimate *NSYNC and BSB Page - A late 90s fan-site dedicated to Nsync and (more importantly) the Backstreet Boys! It has a tonne of fun pages and information about the groups, as well as some quizzes and some downloadable goodies! And it's very much a window into the time frame, and a reminder (if this page on my site wasn't enough) that boy band crazes never go away. :)

The Internet For Dummies: Quick Reference - Here I have some screencaps from an old Internet for Dummies book from 1998 that I rescued out of the recycling. Since I'm so interested in the old Web and my site is pretty clearly inspired by the Net of yore, this was really interesting, and I thought all y'all might enjoy it! :)

I also have a Web design book from 2000 that I want to share some photos of here, but I'm currently loaning it to a friend, so y'all will have to wait for that. It's especially cool because, instead of focusing on just HTML tags and all that, it's more about how to design your site to be cool and easy to use and all that, with a tonne of examples from around that time!

I happened upon this clip from 1994 the other day of a woman on the BBC discussing the early Web, and how the technology will advance. It has some interestingly accurate predictions of the future of the 'Net, and how the technology and services offered would evolve over time. Plus, her hair is pretty rad, too.