What was the Internet like B.G (Before Google): 6 Things Of The Yesteryear

What was life on the Internet like before Google (got popular)? Technically, the Google domain got registered in September 15, 1997, and was recognized at the search engine of choice in 1998. Then again, most of the Internet was still using other search engines like Yahoo, Dogpile and Alta-Vista Search... the transition to Google happened gradually in the early 2000s before it became our default search engine. Here are six things that existed before that memory: 

1. Neopets

Neopets is one of the greatest preoccupation and obsession of the 90's kids and playing games like Meerca Chase, Faerie Bubbles, Hasee Bounce was the best way to spend an afternoon! Of course, stocking up your shop and grabbing a slice of the omelette from The Giant Omelette can also be listed as one of the nostalgic joys of this virtual pet website.

Launched: 1999

Now: Still existing, with Neopets, petpets (pets of Neopets) and petpetpets (pets of petpets).

2. Encarta

Encarta was an online encyclopedia created by Microsoft, similar to the current Wikipedia we have now, except it has thousands of articles written by professionals... I guess they soon realize that the Internet world was too huge and yet huge enough to be self- sustain an entire encyclopedia of all the knowledge known to humankind. Do you remember playing all the national anthems one by one? I did.

Launched: 1993

Now: 2009

 

3. Moeboid, Solitaire, Minesweeper

Looking at all the fancy games we have now, I am astounded to recall the days when I actually felt thoroughly entertained by games like Minesweeper, Solitaire and Moeboid. They are rather rudimentary games made of simple pixels and ideas, does not require much Internet to play. Do you know that Microsoft Solitaire was developed in 1989 by an intern Wes Cherry? Now you do.

Launched: 1990 (Solitaire)

Now: Still existing

4. IRC/ MSN Messenger

I never got to use IRC because well, #age. Hashtags definitely didn't exist then, but super annoying and funny winks did on MSN Messenger! Appearing offline was such a neat trick that deserved some conversation airtime, and chatting into the wee hours of the night was an amazing feeling. Especially to people you don't even talk to in real life.

Launched: 1999

Now: 2012

5. Geocities

Geocities contributed greatly to HTML knowledge of many of us in our 20s right now. Spending hours reading and copying HTML codes from blogskins.com or other webpages source codes is no doubt hard work, but creating webpages then seemed like the coolest thing. Maybe just to dorks like me. Photobucket was Geocities's best friend for uploading images.

Launched: 1999

Now: 2009 (US), still existing in Japan

6. Love Calculator

Retrospectively, Love Calculator is one of the silliest things that constitute much of many people's childhoods. As the name suggests, input two names (full names, or it won't work!) and it will calculate the chances of a relationship working out based on a certain algorithm. When an email chain of a similar love calculator circulated and sent results back to the sender, the craze over this love calculator website died down. Those were the times grappling with the idea of anonymity of the Internet...

Launched: 1998

Now: Still existing. Give it a go!