Posted by on Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 10:00 am.
Pretending that web markups such as HTML5, CSS3 and jQuery don’t exist for a few moments, we thought it’d fun to breakaway from the usual theme and look at a few online tools that let you take a fun glimpse into the early days of website design and development.
Firstly, before we reminisce of the days of 28k modems and Netscape Navigator, a little history lesson.
Back in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee, who is essentially credited with the birth of internet browsing, published the barebones of what would become the HTML 1.0 specification. In the long-term, this single document gave birth to the website design industry as we know it today.
We’ll never forget the classic ‘Dot-Com Bubble’ and the elusive ‘Y2K’ bug that failed to end the world, but it’s good fun to reflect back on the beginnings of the industry and there’s a few quirky websites that let you do just that, without the need for a Flux Capacitor or hopping in a Tardis.
Internet Archive: Wayback Machine
Apple Website in 2000 (Left) and as of now, 2010 (Right)
The Internet Archive: Wayback Machine can show how a requested website looked in the past. It’s one of the most highly-regarded sources for looking at historic web content and is a fun way to look at how popular websites, or even your very own site have changed over the years.
Popular examples include Google BETA in 1998, Apple’s now-classic design in 2000 and more in recent years, Facebook’s first layout in 2004 – who are notorious for their UI revamps. Of course, you can even take a look at the original Creare website!
Know Your Meme
Collection of 'Internet Memes' including Websites, Images and Videos
Know you Meme is essentially a ‘Wikipedia’ style encyclopaedia of all of the best-known elements of viral internet culture. If you’ve even been on a website that really made an impact on you that you shared it with a friend, or watched a video that made you and millions of others laugh, you’ll be able to find it again on this website and learn a little more about the history behind it.
Notable standouts from the collection include the ‘RickRoll‘ switch and bait, Jay Marnard who is better known for his ‘Tron Guy‘ website and of course, the ‘Star Wars Kid‘.
Geocities-izer
http://wonder-tonic.com/geocitiesizer/
Creare Design website transformed by the Geocities-izer
Not to be taken too seriously, the Geocities-izer will take any website back in time and transform it into a typical amateur website that may of be found on services such as Geocities, Tripod and Angelfire back in the late 1990′s.
It’s amusing touches such as Animated .GIF’s, Synthesized MIDI Music and Hit Counters pay tribute to a large community of websites that were typically created on the aforementioned WYSIWYG editors and free hosting services.
(Creare Design on Geocities-izer)
If you’re an experienced Web Designer, or have been using the internet for quite some time, you will probably get a kick out of this website and it’s homage to ‘Web 1.0′ popular culture. I won’t deny it, even I will ashamedly admit to being part of Web-Rings and using animated ‘Under Construction’ signs during those early days.
Further Reading
For a more comprehensive history on Website Design over the past Decade, we wrote a lengthy blog post back at the start of this year. Also, don’t forget to watch our newest Web Design Video Blog for Tips on How to Buy a Domain.
Channel
on June 3rd, 2010 Says:
Haha, great read! I’ve looked through Internet archives and got a good kick out of it. And to think that might be us in ten years!
on June 18th, 2010 Says:
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for your comment. Personally, I begin to fear what my own technical knowledge will be like in 20 years!
I could just imagine the situation of asking for help on how to correctly setup my Holographic Television to play the latest 3D Videos via Google TV. Yikes.