The History of the Web

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Features

GoTo: The Forgotten Search Engine

Published: February 19, 1998

I’ve been digging into the history of search engines and centralized platforms lately. Mostly my goal has been to uncover […]

Features

Why You’d Click on ChickClick

Published: February 1, 1998

When two sisters hit the web with their new idea, it was unlike anything anyone had seen. That one site, ChickClick, inspired so many more and crafted a foundational network of the early web.

Features

How Dreamweaver Got Its Name

Published: December 1, 1997

When Kevin Lynch started going around and talking to web designers, he wrote everything down. He was interested in the hurdles that […]

Features

The History of the Browser Wars: When Netscape Met Microsoft

Published: October 1, 1997

Let’s talk about about the “Browser Wars.” They kicked off in the mid-90s, at a time when the world was […]

Features

Pixel Art Finds Its Home on the Web

Published: May 2, 1997

The design community in particular has been a rather dynamic part of the fabric of the web from its earliest […]

Features

The Web and the Webbys Grew Together

Published: March 6, 1997

The Webby Awards was founded way back when no one knew if the web would take off. When we take a look at the Webbys, we see the web’s history.

Features

The HTML Tags Everybody Hated

Published: January 10, 1997

It’s easy to forget that HTML, which is an extremely simple programming language, is actually just an exceedingly complex markup language. HTML was one […]

Features

Plagued by Ads

Published: January 1, 1997

Here’s a message from the creator of the first-ever pop-up ad: It’s obvious now that what we did was a […]

Features

A Look Back at the History of CSS

Published: December 17, 1996

When you think of HTML and CSS, you probably imagine them as a package deal. But for years after Tim […]

Content Management Made Simple

Published: October 1, 1996

Content Management Systems — software that helps people author and publish websites — likely dates back farther than you think. The problem is, it wasn’t quite called that yet.

Features

A Moment In Time with Editors

Published: August 1, 1996

Let’s go back to 1996, in Boston, at the annual Macworld Expo. Not a great year for Apple mind you. […]

Features

Tables for Layout? Absurd.

Published: June 1, 1996

Web designers that cut their teeth in the late 90’s and early 2000’s probably remember table-based layouts. This was a […]

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The History of the Web is a project by Jay Hoffmann. Get in touch.