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Time Machine: Here’s how 26 popular websites used to look

Have you ever seen the very first version of RTE.ie? Or wondered what the name ‘Daft’ came from?

23/09/12 15,720 Views 19 Comments

SO APPARENTLY THERE’S this hip new thing that all the kids are doing these days – it’s called the Internet? And you can dial it up over the phone and look at stuff other people have put up? It’s basically a fancy, expensive version of Teletext.

Anyway, here’s some of the deadly Internet Sites you can dial up on the information superhighway, which of course will never take off, because it’s only full of porn.

Time Machine: Here’s how 26 popular websites used to look
1 / 26

  • Yahoo! (1997)

    Back in the days AFTER it was known as 'Jerry's guide to the world wide web'. 'YAHOO' was an acronym for 'Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle'.

  • Altavista (1999)

    Remember how you used to search for webpages before Google? Until the Big G's algorithm came along, Yahoo! and Altavista had the market cornered (along with Excite.com).

  • Hotmail.com (1998)

    What you see above isn't even the first incarnation of Hotmail. When founded in 1996, as a then-groundbreaking way to access email over the web, it was officially 'HoTMaiL'. Microsoft bought it in 1998.

  • RTÉ (1996)

    One of the first main Irish sites online. Included an interactive version of Aertel which survives to this day.

  • Ireland.com (1996)

    The website which later became the online of the Irish Times started off as a straightforward 'Irish Yahoo', classifying Irish websites into a simple directory. The Irish Times moved in the following year.

  • Independent.ie (1997)

    Independent.ie wasn't always devoted to the newspaper though - when it began it was first used by Independent News & Media's rival to the Golden Pages, but was handed over to the Indo after that project was wound down.

  • Independent.ie (2002)

    This was actually part of the Unison.ie group, an ISP and internet content provider set up by the Independent and local newspapers. Now Unison.ie points simply to the Indo.

  • Met.ie (2002)

    The very first website of Met Éireann fulfilled all the basic functions - including, as this grab shows, updates of the weather from 4:45am.

  • Ireland On-Line (2000)

    IOL was one of the bigger players in the first generation of Irish ISPs. It was eventually purchased by Esat, rolled into BT, and now exists solely as an webmail provider.

  • Indigo.ie (2001)

    Another one of the first wave of Irish ISPs; over time Indigo was acquired by Eircom - after persistent rumours about the source of some of the site's funding.

  • Irlgov.ie (1996)

    The formal welcome to Ireland on the internet. This was the official government homepage in 1996, back when the web was merely embryonic.

  • Irlgov.ie (1996) - part 2

    When you clicked through, though, the second page was a lot less impressive.

  • Oireachtas (2002)

    Back in the day this was housed as part of the Government website - an odd blurring of the separation of powers.

  • Apple (1998)

    Now featuring those crazy iMac things - you know, the ones with the bright turquoise background? They'll never take off, right?

  • Microsoft (1996)

    'Where do you want to go today?' Well, somewhere with animated GIFs, please.

  • Google (1999)

    The Yahoo!-style exclamation mark was dropped later. Google wasn't its first name though: it was first called Backrub, referring to the fact that it ranked sites based on the number of pages which linked to each other, which it saw as a measure of authority.

  • GAA.ie (1996)

    It wasn't until nearly 2000 that the Gaelic Athletic Association took over responsibility for the GAA.ie domain. Before that it was run on an unofficial basis by an enthusiastic fan who wanted to create an online portal for gaelic games.

  • Eircom.net (2000)

    This was after the botched Telecom Éireann flotation, and after the company had rebranded to Eircom - meaning its older online incarnation, Tinet.ie (as in 'Telecom Internet') had bitten the dust.

  • AOL (1996)

    With the benefit of hindsight, and the work that went into other websites of the day, AOL was ahead of its time. At the time a "true Internet insider" was offering "the skinny" on "marginal behaviour" in the online universe.

  • MySpace.com (1997)

    Back before it was a social network, 'My Space' was a service that built websites for others. Given how sparse its own homepage was, though, it's perhaps not surprising that the business model changed a bit.

  • TheFacebook.com (2004)

    Sssh! Nobody tell the Winklevosses.

  • Bebo (2005)

    When we were going through the archives for Bebo it became apparent that the four-character, bisyllabic name was regularly traded. Michael Birch eventually set up his social network in 2005 - but even then was willing to sell the domain name for USD8,000. Having flogged the site for USD750 million, he's probably thankful nobody bought.

  • Twitter (2006)

    Or, more accurately, 'Twttr'. The site was originally conceived as a social network for mobile phones, where messages were exchanged via text.

  • Daft.ie (1999)

    You probably wondered at some point whether 'Daft' stood for anything. Here's your answer: it was the 'Dublin Accommodation Finder Terminal'. Our sister site now has a catalogue of over 200,000 properties online for sale and rent.

  • Boards.ie (2000)

    Another of our sister sites was originally set up in 1998 as a forum for fans of the first-person shooter game Quake. It changed its focus in 1999 to cater for more general discussion.

  • TheJournal.ie (2010)

    We have no idea what happened to this auld thing.
  • Back in the days AFTER it was known as 'Jerry's guide to the world wide web'. 'YAHOO' was an acronym for 'Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle'.
  • Remember how you used to search for webpages before Google? Until the Big G's algorithm came along, Yahoo! and Altavista had the market cornered (along with Excite.com).
  • What you see above isn't even the first incarnation of Hotmail. When founded in 1996, as a then-groundbreaking way to access email over the web, it was officially 'HoTMaiL'. Microsoft bought it in 1998.
  • One of the first main Irish sites online. Included an interactive version of Aertel which survives to this day.
  • The website which later became the online of the Irish Times started off as a straightforward 'Irish Yahoo', classifying Irish websites into a simple directory. The Irish Times moved in the following year.
  • Independent.ie wasn't always devoted to the newspaper though - when it began it was first used by Independent News & Media's rival to the Golden Pages, but was handed over to the Indo after that project was wound down.
  • This was actually part of the Unison.ie group, an ISP and internet content provider set up by the Independent and local newspapers. Now Unison.ie points simply to the Indo.
  • The very first website of Met Éireann fulfilled all the basic functions - including, as this grab shows, updates of the weather from 4:45am.
  • IOL was one of the bigger players in the first generation of Irish ISPs. It was eventually purchased by Esat, rolled into BT, and now exists solely as an webmail provider.
  • Another one of the first wave of Irish ISPs; over time Indigo was acquired by Eircom - after persistent rumours about the source of some of the site's funding.
  • The formal welcome to Ireland on the internet. This was the official government homepage in 1996, back when the web was merely embryonic.
  • When you clicked through, though, the second page was a lot less impressive.
  • Back in the day this was housed as part of the Government website - an odd blurring of the separation of powers.
  • Now featuring those crazy iMac things - you know, the ones with the bright turquoise background? They'll never take off, right?
  • 'Where do you want to go today?' Well, somewhere with animated GIFs, please.
  • The Yahoo!-style exclamation mark was dropped later. Google wasn't its first name though: it was first called Backrub, referring to the fact that it ranked sites based on the number of pages which linked to each other, which it saw as a measure of authority.
  • It wasn't until nearly 2000 that the Gaelic Athletic Association took over responsibility for the GAA.ie domain. Before that it was run on an unofficial basis by an enthusiastic fan who wanted to create an online portal for gaelic games.
  • This was after the botched Telecom Éireann flotation, and after the company had rebranded to Eircom - meaning its older online incarnation, Tinet.ie (as in 'Telecom Internet') had bitten the dust.
  • With the benefit of hindsight, and the work that went into other websites of the day, AOL was ahead of its time. At the time a
  • Back before it was a social network, 'My Space' was a service that built websites for others. Given how sparse its own homepage was, though, it's perhaps not surprising that the business model changed a bit.
  • Sssh! Nobody tell the Winklevosses.
  • When we were going through the archives for Bebo it became apparent that the four-character, bisyllabic name was regularly traded. Michael Birch eventually set up his social network in 2005 - but even then was willing to sell the domain name for USD8,000. Having flogged the site for USD750 million, he's probably thankful nobody bought.
  • Or, more accurately, 'Twttr'. The site was originally conceived as a social network for mobile phones, where messages were exchanged via text.
  • You probably wondered at some point whether 'Daft' stood for anything. Here's your answer: it was the 'Dublin Accommodation Finder Terminal'. Our sister site now has a catalogue of over 200,000 properties online for sale and rent.
  • Another of our sister sites was originally set up in 1998 as a forum for fans of the first-person shooter game Quake. It changed its focus in 1999 to cater for more general discussion.
  • We have no idea what happened to this auld thing.

Most of these archive versions can be accessed using the excellent Wayback Machine at Archive.org. Make sure you don’t catch the I LOVE YOU virus on your travels around the information superhighway.

About the author:

Gavan Reilly
@gavreilly
gavan@thejournal.ie

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