Throwback Thursday: The Internet in 2000

Can you actually imagine life without the internet? Or Wi-fi? Or HD live streaming, Wikipedia and the plethora of social media that includes Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and Instagram? Here are a few things you might remember if you used the internet in the 90's.

1. The frustration of getting disconnected every time the phone rang

In those pre-mobile phone days you had to use your landline for broadband access.

2. That weird crackling sound of dial-up internet

A dubstep sound combining screeches, crackling, beeps and other unidentified noises that lasted for about 30 seconds until you were finally connected to the world wide web.

3. Your Internet Explorer when it looked like this

With a very helpful button on the left that explained how you could use the internet. While Netscape may have been the original web browser, it was IE that had browser monopoly for years until Mozilla, Google and Safari came along.

4. When you discovered the joys of instant messaging with MSN Messenger

5. Those moments when your patience was seriously tested every time you downloaded something

Those who tried downloading anything in the 90s truly understand the meaning of patience. 39 years for a download?

6. Only to see your picture download like this

Back in the day, you’d wait an age just for an image to load on your webpage.

7. Saving your downloaded information onto 3-inch floppy discs that quickly ran out of memory

Square-shaped discs that had only 1.44MB to store all your downloaded information? No wonder you had drawers full of them.

8. When you spent your pocket money at internet cafes

For those who didn’t have internet at home.

9. When Alta Vista was your go-to search engine

We all became more well-informed thanks to Alta Vista – although it wasn’t as intuitive as Google is today. The American web search engine beat its competitors (remember Ask Jeeves, Lycos, Excite, WebCrawler and InfoSeek?) by a long margin when it indexed around 20 million web pages and really revolutionised how we used the internet.

10. When the most evil thing you could find on the internet was pop-up ads

These days it’s internet trolls, but back in the day if you had to name one thing you hated about the internet, it would unequivocally be annoying pop-up ads.

Fast forward to 2018 and see how far we have come, the new faces and phases of the Internet, the possibilities are just endless.