Sidenotes
Shorter stories, outside timeline
Was Queen Elizabeth II a keen surfer of the early web?
I recently went on a bit of a journey to figure out: did Queen Elizabeth surf the early web? Continue reading
The Most Influential Website of All Time
There’s one site that is connected to Facebook, YouTube, Yahoo!, Twitter, and many others. And you probably never think about it. Continue reading
The Perilous Price of Blogging
A single website changed his life, and set him on a path to activism, and ultimately, exile. Continue reading
An Hour About… Psuedo.com
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? Continue reading
The Internet Book Baron
This week I have something a bit different, written by longtime newsletter author Ernie Smith, best known for his history newsletter Tedium. His most recent project is called MidRange, an experimental newsletter published three times a week (Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday). Ernie writes about whatever’s on his mind—tech, pop culture, creativity, or general weirdness—in 30… Continue reading
The Most Ill-Timed Website in History
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. Continue reading
The man who drove from coast to coast
When the web was still knew, one man decided to get on his motorcycle and do something about it. Continue reading
Excerpt from Chapter 5: Webzines Find Their Voice
What follows is an excerpt from the latest chapter an ongoing series I’ve been writing for the last few months at CSS Tricks, the full thing is a bit long to include all at once. It’s about webzines, a part of web’s history I find myself returning to frequently. They were responsible for the tone… Continue reading
Fandom, Folksonomies, and Tagging Things Right
The fan fiction community is tough. Resilient. Fandom — a catch-all term that includes fan fiction writers, readers, and participants at various levels — is more than stories featuring characters and situations plucked from pop culture. It’s a dynamic and evolving culture with a decades-long history that started out in the real world, but grew… Continue reading
I have some news
Starting today, I will have an ongoing series at CSS-Tricks that we’re just calling Web History. It’s a chapter by chapter look at the entirety of the web’s history. From day one onward. Each chapter tackles a different theme and I’ll be bouncing back and forth through history, but generally moving in chronological order. The… Continue reading
July 2020 Weblog: It Can Be Our Web
This month, finding your own space on the web, exploring the magic and quirks and possibilities of CSS, and (re)discovering community. Continue reading
What Happened to the Webmaster
The webmaster was once a coveted and important role on the web. One day, it disappeared. This is what happened. Continue reading