The History of the Web

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The Book

It’s Time to Pay the Meter

Published: September 20, 2022

News used to be behind a paywall, or not. But then a publication figured out how to do both.

Sidenotes

This is what you’re nostalgic for

Published: August 2, 2022

There’s a word for what you’re feeling. It’s anemoia. And it’s completely made up.

Features

Spiderwoman, Wise-Women: Listservs to connect

Published: July 19, 2022

Way before social media, listservs acted as a glue that held the web community together.

Sidenotes

It’s 1997 and you want to build a website

Published: July 5, 2022

You have a few options. How much time you got?

Gowalla, Foursquare and the (very) brief history of the Location Wars

Published: June 21, 2022

When the iPhone was released, two apps rushed to market in a battle over geolocation that would come to be briefly known as the “location wars”

Sidenotes

Web Apps, Web Sites, Are they all the Same?

Published: May 17, 2022

Is a website the same as a web application? That question is older than you think

Sidenotes

Was Queen Elizabeth II a keen surfer of the early web?

Published: April 19, 2022

I recently went on a bit of a journey to figure out: did Queen Elizabeth surf the early web?

The Long Tail of Uselessness

Published: March 22, 2022

When Paul Phillips the web is at its best when its being useless he did the only thing he could think of. He built his own useless site to catalog it.

Sidenotes

The Most Influential Website of All Time

Published: March 8, 2022

There’s one site that is connected to Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo!, Twitter, and many others. And you probably never think about it.

21st Century Community

Published: February 1, 2022

In 1999, the word “community” took on a new meaning on the web. One that would have a lasting impact for years to come.

Giving Web Standards a Seat at the Table

Published: January 19, 2022

In 2007, the web standards project entered the scene once more to push Microsoft to build its most standards-compliant browser to date.

Web Components Before Web Components

Published: January 4, 2022

A decade before modern day web components, Microsoft had already hit on a formula for their success.

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