A Look Back at the Earliest Websites

For most of us, accessing the World Wide Web is a daily event, but 25 years ago, it was just a "vague but exciting" idea from Tim Berners-Lee.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of when Berners-Lee first proposed the Web, though it took some time to become a reality. The first successful build emerged on Christmas Day in 1990, and by June 1993 there were 130 websites. Considering that today there are about 650 million active websites, Berners-Lee might want to reconsider his unofficial "father of the World Wide Web" title; the child-support payments must be astronomical.

Today, Berners-Lee is a strong advocate for the open Web. He told The Guardian that he'd like for there to be a Magna Carta for the Web to protect its independence and the rights of those who use it, like former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, for whom Berners-Lee has been a vocal supporter.

While the Web is now many things to many people - an independent state, a platform for expression, a habitable universe - it started out so very simply. Early websites were nothing to write home about, but they are funny to peruse 25 years later. Take a trip down memory lane with a few of the pioneer sites that started it all.

CERN

At CERN, researchers are trying to recreate the start of the universe, but CERN already has the distinction of being home to the first website, which it recreated in all its pure-text glory.

Acme Laboratories

Everyone loves free stuff, and one of the first websites trafficked in gratis software. Acme Laboratories has been up and running at Acme.com since 1991, and has all sorts of software (and fun) for free, including a chocolate registry.

World Wide Web Worm

How did you Google before Google? Well, it was a little slower. The World Wide Web Worm crawled around in 1993, out of the lab of Oliver McBryan of the University of Colorado.

Justin’s Links From the Underground

Before there was the word “blog” there was Justin’s Links From the Underground. Justin Hall realized that he could talk about just about anything in his life, and people would read it.

Doctor Fun

Though it didn't have much content in 1993, the Web was fun, but was it funny? It's a question the first webcomic took seriously. Doctor Fun was a one panel of absurdity and levity. The fun didn't end until 2006 and an entire archive gets the last laugh.

IMDB

You know that thing that tells us who was in what movie? What is it again? Can you IMDB it? Oh, right it is IMDB. The second-screen favorite started out as a Usenet group cataloging actresses by their beautiful eyes. (Maybe we should have called it EyeMDB?) It then got more user-friendly with a move to the Web, hosted by Wale's Cardiff University in 1993.

The Tech

At PCMag, we have a soft spot for the first online newspaper, even more so because it was called The Tech and from MIT. The campus newspaper didn't know it would be heralding the death of print.

Trojan Room Coffee Machine

In November 1993 the first webcam was a bit of a tempest in a coffee pot. From a lowly office in a computer lab at the University of Cambridge, a stream of a coffee pot went online. It was intended to alert those in the building of whether they should bother making the trek for caffeine but there was so little else going on on the Web that it became a hit around the world. (Image)

Bianca's Smut Shack

Before Reddit, there was Bianca's Smut Shack for all things raucous and raunchy, where anything and everything went as far as chat.

Chabad.org

If you felt guilty for whatever went down at Bianca's, you could always ask a rabbi for some advice. Chabad.org launched in 1994 to provide a few choice words to the chosen people.

Sex.com

What would the Web be without sex? Gary Kremen, founder of Match.com, was the first registrant of sex.com and let the domain lie there undeveloped. An enterprising pornographer Stephen Cohen swiped the domain name from him in 1995 when the Web was still the Wild West, and a forged fax could pave the way to profit. Kremen eventually got his site back and sold it in 2006 for $14 million.

About Our Expert

Chandra Steele

Senior Features Writer

My Experience

My title is Senior Features Writer, which is a license to write about absolutely anything if I can connect it to technology (I can). I’ve been at PCMag since 2011 and have covered the surveillance state, vaccination cards, ghost guns, voting, ISIS, art, fashion, film, design, gender bias, and more. You might have seen me on TV talking about these topics or heard me on your commute home on the radio or a podcast. Or maybe you’ve just seen my Bernie meme.

I strive to explain topics that you might come across in the news but not fully understand, such as NFTs and meme stocks. I’ve had the pleasure of talking tech with Jeff Goldblum, Ang Lee, and other celebrities who have brought a different perspective to it. I put great care into writing gift guides and am always touched by the notes I get from people who’ve used them to choose presents that have been well-received. Though I love that I get to write about the tech industry every day, it’s touched by gender, racial, and socioeconomic inequality and I try to bring these topics to light.

Outside of PCMag, I write fiction, poetry, humor, and essays on culture.

My Areas of Expertise

Making incomprehensible tech news easy to understand
Expanding the boundaries of topics covered in the industry
Figuring out tips and tricks in apps and on devices and letting you know about them
Putting together gift guides for everyone in your life

The Technology I Use

All that gadgets is gold for me: my iPhone 11 Pro, my fifth-generation iPad that I use only for streaming videos and music, my iPad mini 4 that I like to take with me whenever I carry a bag that can fit it, and my MacBook Pro. Why are they all different shades of gold, though? What’s going on, Apple?

None of them quite live up to my two past loves: my LG Lotus LX600 phone and my Sony Walkman NW-E005 MP3 player.

I've never given up wired earbuds so I was ahead of all those trend pieces. I use a Mangotek Lightning-to-3.5mm headphone jack adapter to connect them to my phone.

I have had so many ebook readers, but I prefer paper to them all. Still, my Kindle Paperwhite is perfect for traveling or when I’m too impatient to wait for a book to be released in paperback.

Read the latest from Chandra Steele

Read full bio