Filed under: Internet
This is what the web looked like in 1994
Wow. We never thought about it this way before, but if the web still looked like this, you wouldn't need an iPhone with Safari to surf the web on your phone.
Remember back when the web was basically text and an occasional logo or product picture on a plain background? And remember when the idea of buying and selling things online was new and kind of scary?
This promotional video from 1994 does beg one question though. If this company was trying to promote itself, why does it tell viewers to email for more information at the end? Shouldn't they have an amazing web site of their own?
[via Google Blogoscoped]
Remember back when the web was basically text and an occasional logo or product picture on a plain background? And remember when the idea of buying and selling things online was new and kind of scary?
This promotional video from 1994 does beg one question though. If this company was trying to promote itself, why does it tell viewers to email for more information at the end? Shouldn't they have an amazing web site of their own?
[via Google Blogoscoped]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
kreg said 9:23AM on 7-12-2007
They do talk about there site and service its Digital!
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kreg said 9:23AM on 7-12-2007
They do mention& talk about there services and site its called "Digital"
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Brad Linder said 9:23AM on 7-12-2007
Right, but at the end, they say "for more information call this number," which seems a bit silly these days when most companies direct people to their website.
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Chris Gilmer said 9:29AM on 7-12-2007
The music makes it so exciting!
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Martin said 9:34AM on 7-12-2007
There were about 10 people who had acces to the internet back then, all the rest thought of it as something scary and complicated. Thats probebly why they want people to contact them by phone/e-mail.
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Grammar freak said 9:44AM on 7-12-2007
You whippersnappers probably don't realize this but Digital was one of the bigger players in the tech world for quite a while. Them and Wang. Big on Rt-128.
And yes, I remember when I had a web browser that did not support background colors other than gray.
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Josh said 9:57AM on 7-12-2007
Hey, I used to work for that company!
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Laydros said 10:07AM on 7-12-2007
Of course the website digital.com still works, sort of. After watching this video I was curious if someone else ended up with that potentially very good url. Instead it redirected where I thought it might. Compaq bought digital some time ago, and then HP bought Compaq a few years ago.
If you don't remember digital (aka DEC) you might have run across either old NT discs or *nix stuff mentioning the Alpha processor. I think Compaq ditched them soon after they bought DEC. There were some other major technologies they were responsible for, but I can't remember off the top of my head.
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bill weaver said 1:08PM on 7-12-2007
Back in 1994 a lot of people had email but it was via Compuserve, AOL, and their proprietary brethren rather than directly directly through Internet providers. Most could email out via the Internet but getting to a website was less common.
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Markus Trapp said 1:17PM on 7-12-2007
Everyone who wants to take a look liek a website was presented in mosaic can do that with this emulator:
http://www.dejavu.org/emulator.htm
Kind of funny and surprising results are guaranteed ;-)
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Diddle said 2:14PM on 7-12-2007
Oooh - all the Times New Roman is hurting my eyes! O_O
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IFeelOld said 7:13PM on 7-12-2007
I remember the internet like that (actually, in 1994 my browser of choice was LYNX, so think white on black with no pics) but I definitely don't remember anything loading as fast as it does in that video, but that may have to do with the vintage 386 IBM Microchannel machine with the ever popular 2400bps modem.
But, on the flip side, I do remember that time as being amazing due to the enormous amount of data instantly available to us in the new World Wide Web. By comparison, it is a pittance to what is now available though.
For the record, my email address in 1994 was something that had a bunch of suffixes like k12.us, and I liked Gopher.
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Rick said 2:41AM on 7-13-2007
I wish more people understood that "beg the question" does NOT mean "raise the question" or "prompt the question." (And if you stop and think for a minute, what the heck could it even mean to "beg a question"?? The very concept is absurd. Maybe what is meant is "does beg for an answer.") To beg the question is to commit the logical fallacy of engaging in a circular argument by assuming that one's premiss is true. E.g., Abortion is wrong. Why? Because it's wrong to murder. The flaw is that it assumes that abortion is murder, which is the very thing at issue. Please folks - try to improve English, not ruin it.
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Rick said 2:41AM on 7-13-2007
I wish more people understood that "beg the question" does NOT mean "raise the question" or "prompt the question." (And if you stop and think for a minute, what the heck could it even mean to "beg a question"?? The very concept is absurd. Maybe what is meant is "does beg for an answer.") To beg the question is to commit the logical fallacy of engaging in a circular argument by assuming that one's premiss is true. E.g., Abortion is wrong. Why? Because it's wrong to murder. The flaw is that it assumes that abortion is murder, which is the very thing at issue. Please folks - try to improve English, not ruin it.
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Peter said 8:53AM on 7-13-2007
Brad,
How do you write a technology related blog and not know who Digital Equipment Corportation (DEC) was?
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Waldo said 8:53AM on 7-13-2007
Damn, what is this Web crap.
Long live GOPHER!
W
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sal said 8:54AM on 7-13-2007
pretty much the same as todays websites except they are not riddled with ads and garbage flash animations .
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Markus Trapp said 8:54AM on 7-13-2007
@ #19: Thanks, good advice, I just downloaded the Mosaic-Browser.
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AsktheAdminDotCom said 8:54AM on 7-13-2007
Talk about nostalgia! I was just connected to a commodore 64 bbs. What a great day. Now back to my 10mb connection :)
Your friends @ http://www.asktheAdmin.com
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bigwangtheory said 8:54AM on 7-13-2007
Yeah, back in 1994 I remember Wang being huge. Massive. Now I use Valtrex.
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