Nostalgia seems to be pretty big nowadays. Today I was surprised to see an article on nostalgia for Web 1.0.
Er, Web 1.0, you ask. What is that?
That used to be the day. This was the internet of the late 90s and early 2000s. Those were the days before Google took shape (I remember using Alta Vista search engine) and blogging was just lurking around the corner. If you wanted a website, you had to build your own. You had to know HTML, DHTML and perhaps JavaScript (nowadays you just need a blogger or wordpress account). The best example was of course Geocities.
I had a Geocities account. Curiosity got the better of me and I used an internet archiver to see what my website looked like in 2002.
I also had a little bit of space on the university website (both as a student and as a TA) and this is what it looked like (the archiver is missing some of the images as well as styles).
What I find amazing is just the sheer amount of personal information I used to put online back then! One can argue we put more information online nowadays on Facebook and LinkedIn but those are behind a password protected account and shared with friends only (or so we think). From my site in 2002 you would know the names of my friends, my class schedule, where I worked, what my interests were, where we went for holidays and what I thought about the World Cup (well, some things don't change). ANY one could have seen that and all that was preventing them from visiting my site was not knowing the exact URL.
Ironically, I see that the time when Google broke through was when Geocities began to die, and blogging started to take root. I have already been blogging since 2004 (more than a decade now; my first post was on a cricket match).
I wonder what I will be posting as nostalgia in another ten years! Perhaps we will be looking back on the glory days of Facebook!
Er, Web 1.0, you ask. What is that?
That used to be the day. This was the internet of the late 90s and early 2000s. Those were the days before Google took shape (I remember using Alta Vista search engine) and blogging was just lurking around the corner. If you wanted a website, you had to build your own. You had to know HTML, DHTML and perhaps JavaScript (nowadays you just need a blogger or wordpress account). The best example was of course Geocities.
I had a Geocities account. Curiosity got the better of me and I used an internet archiver to see what my website looked like in 2002.
I also had a little bit of space on the university website (both as a student and as a TA) and this is what it looked like (the archiver is missing some of the images as well as styles).
What I find amazing is just the sheer amount of personal information I used to put online back then! One can argue we put more information online nowadays on Facebook and LinkedIn but those are behind a password protected account and shared with friends only (or so we think). From my site in 2002 you would know the names of my friends, my class schedule, where I worked, what my interests were, where we went for holidays and what I thought about the World Cup (well, some things don't change). ANY one could have seen that and all that was preventing them from visiting my site was not knowing the exact URL.
Ironically, I see that the time when Google broke through was when Geocities began to die, and blogging started to take root. I have already been blogging since 2004 (more than a decade now; my first post was on a cricket match).
I wonder what I will be posting as nostalgia in another ten years! Perhaps we will be looking back on the glory days of Facebook!
4 comments:
I can relate to your nostalgia. I remember when I got my first email address in university and when I actually built my own website in a class. Things sure have changed and will just continue to grow!
mezba you may not remember me. But I was a regular reader of your blog for many years. I again bumped today via Ayesha's blog. It was a pleasure seeing you around and reading a lot of your stuff.
Stay blessed bud...
mezba you may not remember me. But I was a regular reader of your blog for many years. I again bumped today via Ayesha's blog. It was a pleasure seeing you around and reading a lot of your stuff.
Stay blessed bud...
@Salma, yes, I still remember those. Sometimes I miss how simple things were back then!
@Mystic, I do remember you! Welcome back! Hope you will stick around again!
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