The History of the Web

In 1998, Bruce and Susan Abelson launched Open Diary. Building on personal site builders like Geocities, Angelfire, and Tripod, Open […]

I’m reflecting on a lot of really interesting responses I got last month to my article about feeling lonely on the web. And maybe now, I’m feeling a bit less so. So thank you to everyone who responded.

Something like a channel changer, for the web. That’s what the idea was at first. But it led to a whole new path of discovery that even the site’s creators couldn’t have predicted.

If the web is participatory, and I really think it is, then how come blogging can feel so lonely?

Twenty years ago, Kevin Kelly wrote an absolutely seminal piece for Wired. This week is a great opportunity to look back at it.

In the early 1990s, three companies pioneered online transactions, facing challenges of security and user accessibility. They are hardly known today.

By the end of 1995, the web moved outward and into the hands of everyone.

With search getting worse by the day, maybe it’s time we rebounded in the other direction. The long forgotten directory.

In 1995, a new industry was born, and design became a true practice.

The world changed a lot in 1995. And for the web, it was a transformational year.

A home online is about as essential as it gets. But we need to make that easier. Where are we heading to build this new web together?

The earliest work with selling things online was all about reaching a shopping public ready to log on and start. But along the way, they found a whole new audience for shopping, which changed the way we think about commerce on the web..