What do you miss most about the early Interwebs?

[Dani]

What do you miss most about the early Internet that today's generation will never experience? I'm going to answer this question from the perspective of a web entrepreneur. I miss most the wonder of it all. Everything was new. It was easier than ever to build something from scratch and then instantly see people all around the world using your new creation. It felt like there were possibilities at every turn.

[Reverend Jim]

I miss the time when everything on the internet wasn't monetized, at least to the extent it is now. I see the parallels between the evolution of the internet and the evolution of rock & roll and computers. The days of two guys in a garage creating/revolutionizing an industry are long gone.

[Dani]

Haha! How different we think. Back in 2004, I was a college kid who put DaniWeb on the map by being the first tech website to conceptualize and sell behavioral targeted advertising, even before Google Ads existed. For me, I think back to those days and I think about all the ideas and possibilities. Nowadays it feels like absolutely everything has already been done a hundred times over.

[SCBWV]

I agree, the novelty of it all back then was amazing. Dazzling accomplishments came about much easier. Despite the pitfalls, the tech we have today has had a profound impact on the lives of people that have access. Googling from a cell phone? Holy hell, I drove to the beach for years with a Rand McNally road map book. Overall, I think the benefits outweigh the negatives. I just hope we get passed all the subscription BS.

[WendyDolan]

What do you miss most about the early Internet that today's generation will never experience? I'm going to answer this question from the perspective of a web entrepreneur. I miss most the wonder of it all. Everything was new. It was easier than ever to build something from scratch and then instantly see people all around the world using your new creation. It felt like there were possibilities at every turn.

I miss the simplicity. No algorithms, no dark patterns, no endless competition. If you made something interesting, people would just stumble upon it naturally. Felt less corporate and more people experimenting on the web.

[Reverend Jim]

I know that AI is causing upheavals, but do you recall what an impact VisiCalc had on the accounting industry? I still remember an interview with Dan Bricklin when he talked about showing an early version to an accountant friend and the friend literally got weak in the knees when he realized that 90% of the drudgery of his work had just been eliminated. Aside from AI, what other app has had as much of an impact? How many personal computers were sold just so accountants could run VisiCalc? And remember that the original version was developed in only two months.

Another example is the Video Toaster by NewTek. For $10,000 you could buy a Toaster bundled with an Amiga and LightWave 3D rendering software and get the functionality (and so much more) of video hardware that used to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars putting VFX in the hands of hobbyists and local TV stations.

So shorter answer, I miss the days when one person, or a small group of people could totally upend an industry.

[Reverend Jim]

I miss the days when the internet had not fractured into special interest groups (if there ever was a time). Way back in the 60s when Monty Python first ran, they did a segment that consisted of a TV news reporter, in sequence presenting

1. The news for gibbons
2. The news for parrots
3. The news for wombats

Ridiculous? Certainly. But compare that to today where you have separate areas (and not just on the internet) for

1. News for conservatives
2. News for liberals
3. News for whomever

When I grew up in the 60s and 70s there was just The News. There was a lot more reporting of The News and a lot less commenting on it (maybe just a Canadian thing). The news was intended to inform us rather than groom us. Everything these days seems to be "echo chambers" where you can consume only news tailored to your viewpoint. Opinions aren't news, but by and large, opinions have replaced news.

[SCBWV]

I also miss when advertising wasn't such a huge piece of the ecosystem.

[Reverend Jim]

Yeah. Back in the days when the internet was for the exchange of ideas instead of just one giant billboard. These days anything with a screen can be used to force-feed you ads. I realize that ads pay the bills and keep things free, but when TV shows went from 55 minutes of show and 5 minutes of ads to 41 minutes of show and 19 minuted of ads people started abandoning basic cable for paid no-ad services. And now even the once ad-free services are streaming ads so they can charge even more for "premium" service.

[Dani]

people started abandoning basic cable for paid no-ad services

That's on the Internet too, though. Here on DaniWeb you can purchase a DaniWeb Premium subscription to be ad-free. I think a lot of other sites do this as well. However, I did just look it up, and websites like The New York Times use both a subscription-required model and ads.

At least for the websites that do it like DaniWeb, I see it as giving people a choice on how they wish to support the Internet. To get back ot the days when the web was a free exchange of ideas, can you think of better models on how to make things sustainable?

[Dani]

I also miss when advertising wasn't such a huge piece of the ecosystem.

I don't remember those days at all. In the mid-1990s, I had America Online, and it was full of ads. Then, in 1998 I started daniweb.com as a site about dogs, and I definitely sold advertising on that site as a high school kid. I specifically remember being an Amazon affiliate and promoting dog-related books. I also participated in LinkExchange banner ads, etc. (Remember those?) Then in 2002, I was a college sophomore, and DaniWeb became a tech forum, and I created one of the first platforms that sold targeted, behavioral advertising.

[SCBWV]

I'm a bit before AOL 😂 I started several years before web browsers, Internet email and cable modems. Okay, I feel old now.

[Reverend Jim]

My first experience with the internet was via CompuServe. And at that time the search engine was "Gopher". Nothing like today's Gopher which is apparently still a thing.

[SCBWV]

We used Gopher for a time. We started with in-house email through 300 baud dialup through the State. I wrote the editor; our techie wrote the Pascal interface with transfers using Kermit. We had a group of IT people testing modems as the new ones came out, with the last being the speed demon at 19,200. We used SuperCalc and WordStar 2000, which was better than trying to teach people dot commands. Ah.. good times, but I'll stick with today's tech.

[Dani]

I used to have The Internet Yellow Pages where you would search for a topic and it would list various webpage URLs, listservs, usenet groups, gopher addresses, etc.

[SCBWV]

I still get a printed phone book ever once in a while, which is amazing, but I guess there are still people with a landline and no Internet (especially in my State). Believe it or not, there are residents with no cell phone (because there's no service), Wi-Fi, or microwave in the National Radio Quiet Zone. Another source Wikipedia. And believe me, they will track you down. They only drive diesel vehicles around the telescopes because of interference from the spark plugs. It's a cool place.

[Reverend Jim]

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