Not the earliest by any means, I joined the Internet (or, "surfed the information superhighway" as it were) in early '96. A few things come to mind:
- Accessing web pages (specifically www.idsoftware.com) using listservs that responded with HTML contents, when I had a free email account with Juno and no WWW yet
- Using various free web providers that were ad-based (I remember Freewwweb), and using various hacks to not see their ads
- Making a couple hundred bucks through AllAdvantage, which would pay to display an ad on your computer while browsing - more hacks
- Playing an online trivia game (Cosmo's Conundrum) with live chat, so many hours spent on it, very strong community there that is still connected via Facebook
- Getting excited about VRML and quickly getting over it
- Building pages in Frontpage/HoTMeTaL/others, then with Flash
- Finding pages primarily through Yahoo (+ web rings), then random search engines (Dogpile, HotBot, Excite, Infoseek), then standardizing on Altavista, then being blown away by Google
- AOL CDs everywhere and also AOL keywords in commercials before .com addresses became commonplace
- Early memes such as the dancing baby, the hampster dance, Mahir's "I kiss you" page, etc
- Listening to RealAudio radio stations online
- Downloading my first movie online - Mortal Kombat Annihilation in all its 32MB glory, in the now-defunct VIV format
- Being there when the DivX format started spreading like wildfire on IRC via movie trailers, the Matrix trailer blew me away
- Early p2p file sharing - first with Hotline (which nobody remembers about these days, it seems), then with Napster (finding someone with a song you're looking for, then checking out their whole library was amazing)
There's much, much more that I'm forgetting. It was a magical time when the Internet felt both huge and small at the same time.
Comments
Not the earliest by any means, I joined the Internet (or, "surfed the information superhighway" as it were) in early '96. A few things come to mind:
- Accessing web pages (specifically www.idsoftware.com) using listservs that responded with HTML contents, when I had a free email account with Juno and no WWW yet
- Using various free web providers that were ad-based (I remember Freewwweb), and using various hacks to not see their ads
- Making a couple hundred bucks through AllAdvantage, which would pay to display an ad on your computer while browsing - more hacks
- Playing an online trivia game (Cosmo's Conundrum) with live chat, so many hours spent on it, very strong community there that is still connected via Facebook
- Getting excited about VRML and quickly getting over it
- Building pages in Frontpage/HoTMeTaL/others, then with Flash
- Finding pages primarily through Yahoo (+ web rings), then random search engines (Dogpile, HotBot, Excite, Infoseek), then standardizing on Altavista, then being blown away by Google
- AOL CDs everywhere and also AOL keywords in commercials before .com addresses became commonplace
- Early memes such as the dancing baby, the hampster dance, Mahir's "I kiss you" page, etc
- Listening to RealAudio radio stations online
- Downloading my first movie online - Mortal Kombat Annihilation in all its 32MB glory, in the now-defunct VIV format
- Being there when the DivX format started spreading like wildfire on IRC via movie trailers, the Matrix trailer blew me away
- Early p2p file sharing - first with Hotline (which nobody remembers about these days, it seems), then with Napster (finding someone with a song you're looking for, then checking out their whole library was amazing)
There's much, much more that I'm forgetting. It was a magical time when the Internet felt both huge and small at the same time.