Do you remember being on the internet in 1996? No, you do not, because nobody had the internet back then, I do not know who the internet was for. In 1996, I was still breeding homing pigeons. Riding my horse and cart up the road to the homing pigeon coop. Using my cave to write the directions to the pigeon coop on so that my dinosaur could pick up my mail.
But it turns out that it was actually a thing. The internet existed, and there were websites on it, including some of the ones you know and love today. The only thing was, back in the misty days of HTML1 (I guess that’s the term, I’m not a nerd), everything looked mighty different – and if you get yourself onto the WayBack Machine, a fun “internet tool”, you can see exactly how different for yourself.
Business Insider had themselves this very idea and took a look at some popular websites in their first iterations, and HA! let me tell you, bozo, this is the ruuuuude awakening you’ve been waiting for. So just for you, I’ve compiled a few of their best finds, as well as a couple of my own – so here’s a glimpse into what the internet was like back when everyone was space newts or whatever:
Twitter now:
Twitter then:
Facebook now:
Facebook then:
Google now:
Google then:
Yahoo now:
Yahoo then:
Mercedes now:
Mercedes then:
Amazon now:
Amazon then:
Burger King now:
Burger King then:
McDonald’s now:
McDonald’s then:
Pepsi now:
Pepsi then:
Apple now:
Apple then:
Domino’s now:
Domino’s then:
Pringles now:
Pringles then:
Greggs now:
Greggs then:
Yorkshire Tea now:
Yorkshire tea then:
Dairylea now (I am having a breakdown):
Dairylea then:
What a wacky and wonderful place this old internet was back in the 90s, eh? I mean, it’s most definitely infinitely weirder now, but you know, low resolutions!
