Ask HN: Is anyone else nostalgic about the early internet (90s)

3 points by biznerd 5 years ago | 1 comment

Ugly web design for sure, but today all we have are sleek pre-designed wordpress themes and twitter bootstrap. The web resembles a high-end mall but it's lost a lot of it's character.

When I was in high school, a bunch of us would create websites on angelfire or geocities. I'd assume kids today are just trying to get followers on Youtube or Instagram.

Today, the algorithim is almighty. But back in the day things like webrings and guestposts worked. It was more personal. There was less obsession with "going viral".

If I google "fried chicken recipes" I'm gonna get a 1500 word tome. The author will talk paragraph after paragraph about the first time she ate fried chicken, songs about fried chicken, how fried chicken is truly American, where the best spot in her state is, just to bump up the word count for SEO. And of course she'll recommend an affiliate link for a fryer, which she's never actually bought.

I guess I get nostalgic about the sense of exploration and serendipity.

Does anyone else feel this way? Is a return possible, or is nostalgia just nostalgia?

ksaj 5 years ago |

It sounds like gopher, which is actually still in use to some degree. A little harder to find your way around though, since you don't have the Googles and the Yahoos and the Bings paying attention to it. But there is a lot of info that you won't find anywhere else. One of the few remnants of the 90's Internet that is still around, even if at a smaller scale.