The History of the Web

In 1998, Netscape announced a bold new plan to the world. One announcement was expected. The other took the tech world by surprise.

A single website changed his life, and set him on a path to activism, and ultimately, exile.

My ongoing research has me taking another look at the Browser Wars and thinking about how they’re retelling themselves in real-time today.

Pseudo.com is a forgotten relic of the dot-com era. Was it ahead of its time? A moonshot that went too far? Or simply a piece of elaborate performance art?

A look at how we can save our websites from ourselves, and the stories that keep us going.

When websites disappear, how do we make sure that our history is preserved?

The web’s turn into commercial may have happened quickly—it was largely complete by the end of the 1990’s—but that doesn’t mean it didn’t take a turn into the weird here and there. Case and point: Zima.

This week I have something a bit different, written by longtime newsletter author Ernie Smith, best known for his history […]

A look at the work that standards makes possible, and the kinds of hypertext that were never fully realized

There are a near infinite number of sites that have launched that you’ve never heard about. This is likely one of them. But if not for poor timing, it may have been primed for success.

A report on the health of the Internet, and efforts to improve that health, bring us in to a new year.

This month, a look at the power center in tech in the wake of a move to de-platform hate, and what the future of the personal site might look like.