Can you recall the very first website you ever visited?
For most people born after 1990, quickly pulling up pages on Chrome or Safari seems as normal as breathing air. But the internet had pretty humble beginnings starting out.
I‘m thrilled to be your guide today back through decades of web history. We‘ll uncover how those earliest sites from the late 1980s ended up shaping the vibrant Internet we enjoy today.
Get ready to marvel at relics from the web‘s past that somehow remain standing in our modern era!
The Foundations of the Web
It all began back in 1980. Long before owning cell phones or using wifi, physicist Tim Berners-Lee started dreaming up a little something called the World Wide Web at Switzerland‘s CERN laboratory.
His vision was a system for instantly sharing information between scientists across the world. No more mailing printouts or scrambling to find papers in scattered archives!
So Tim began writing protocols for identifying and formatting linked documents that could be retrieved from anywhere. His collaborator Robert Cailliau coined the now ubiquitous term "World Wide Web".
Yet amazingly, as Tim himself explains, "even those who foresaw millions of users did not expect the huge sociological changes that access to the World Wide Web would unleash."
But before the first proper site launched in 1991, let‘s set the stage with major milestones in the web‘s birth…
March 1985 – Symbolics.com becomes the very first registered domain
September 1986 – ITcorp registers the oldest surviving domain still online today
August 1991 – Tim Berners-Lee launches the web‘s first ever website at info.cern.ch
Hang on tight now as we traverse this online evolution one site at a time!
STOP 1 – ITcorp
Your seatbelts won‘t even have time to click before we pull up at possibly the wackiest site ever made. Welcome to the webpage for ITcorp – officially crowned the oldest still active website on the net!
This page marvel has barely changed since first splashing online with neon rainbow colors on September 18, 1986. Talk about qualifying for internet senior citizenship!
But behind the site‘s cheeky humor lies an elite California engineering firm launched back in 1975. Specializing in custom hardware and software projects across industries like utilities and outer space technologies, ITcorp builds leading solutions relied upon by heavyweights from NASA to IBM.
So next time you hear a rocket launch or get money from an ATM, ITcorp‘s legacy may have quietly played a part. For being trailblazers of the early web though, I love that their site retains a totally silly dancing spider animation just for kicks!
Launch Year – 1986
Company – Interrupt Technology Corporation
Services – Defense, Aerospace, Manufacturing, Banking IT Solutions
Style – Delightfully retro and outright visually confusing!
Now let‘s jump just a bit forward in time to peek at another old friend…
STOP 2 – Vortex
In October 1986, Vortex.com spun up as the internet domain for writer and internet privacy advocate, Lauren Weinstein. Little did Weinstein know how urgently needed her prescient work around online rights would become.
Her site continues reflecting a dazzling myriad of passion projects. WITH simple black Times New Roman font contrasting the bright white background, you can scan Weinstein‘s views on censorship debates alongside local nature photos and California wildfire updates.
Despite newer sites adopting slick graphics and video, Vortex holds an endearing charm straight out of web prehistory! It echos an era when building online communities around shared interests mattered more than clicks and flashy interfaces.
And point of pride – Weinstein also cofounded the massively influential People For Internet Responsibility advocacy group. So respect to this digital freedom fighting OG!
Launch Year – 1986
Founder – Lauren Weinstein
Focus – Technology and Privacy Commentary
Style – Text-heavy minimalism
Now let‘s fast forward a few pivotal months to a Texas tech visionary who bet big on open source…
STOP 3 – Texas Internet Consulting
Smoot Carl-Mitchell knew the power of open systems long before terms like Linux and cloud servers entered popular lingo. All the way back in April 1987, his Texas Internet Consulting Company launched tic.com built entirely around "GNU/Linux System Architecture, Unix System architecture, TCP/IP Network Design."
Talk about forward thinking site architecture! Yet despite specializing in cutting edge development, Tic‘s website design transports us straight back to 1990. A mustard yellow background blankets Carl-Mitchell‘s bio, company services, old client logos, whitepapers, and yes – custom Linux tools available for download.
Even the last update listed dates way back to 2004. But no matter to Smoot. He knew lean, efficient code and systems spoke louder than flashy graphics. Tic and Carl-Mitchell continue serving elite infrastructure clients today thanks to visionary bets on open source over 30 years back!
Launch Year – 1987
Founder – Smoot Carl-Mitchell
Focus – Open Source Software Consulting
Style – Deliciously retro, text-centric site
Now let‘s input a new destination into the ole‘ Wayback Machine browser…somewhere a bit off the beaten track:
STOP 4 – Toad
Ever used email encryption like PGP or relied on HTTPS web security? You can partially thank internet pioneer John Gilmore whose Toad.com dates from August 1987. Though instead of IT services, Gilmore dedicated his site to supporting work by the highly influential Electronic Frontier Foundation.
This scrappy nonprofit champions online privacy, free expression, and digital rights through savvy activism and legal support. They even sued the NSA over illegal surveillance – earning respect the world over for punching far above their weight!
And his site‘s delightfully weird aesthetic proves Gilmore did things his own way long before Toad. Peruse at your leisure John‘s company history, photos of surveillance gear to "beware", poetry couplets, and even interviews conducted on his private plane Midnight Whim!
This internet pioneer knew baking in citizen protections mattered long before mega-corps like Google gobbled up everyone‘s data. And rather than chase fads, Gilmore built enduring tools for freedom along with his wonderfully offbeat tribute site.
Launch Year – 1987
Founder – John Gilmore
Focus – Supporting Internet Freedoms
Style – Gloriously weird bordering on outright wacky!
Now into the 90s we go with even more eclectic sites ahead…
STOP 5 – Caine, Farber and Gordon
I‘ll forgive you for not instantly recognizing industry pioneers Caine, Farber and Gordon upon landing at CFG.com in November 1987. But true computerscientists revere this trio for crafting ingenious processing languages and ultra reliable medical billing tools relied upon by huge companies.
They laid the foundation for critical programs running global banking, insurance, energy, and healthcare giants way back in 1970 with their first software company. Yet even today, CFG‘s site wonderfully transports us to a lost era of Internet innocence.
Poke around their online visitor logs containing enthused posts from web pilgrims spanning 1996-2001. Marvel at Debian conference photos when spotting open source operating systems felt subversive and niche. Heck, you can even download vintage software demos like SHAREPLUS to flex that retro coding muscle!
CFG proves even the most influential builders often get overlooked despite laying bricks pivotal to modern tech conveniences we can’t live without!
Launch Year – 1987
Founders – Steve Caine, Dave Farber, Kent Gordon
Focus – Programming Languages and Billing Software
Style – Classic 90s minimalism
Now let‘s veer into sillier territory with a beloved 90s web icon acllebrating over 30 years online…
STOP 6 – Acme Labs
Entering its fourth decade confusing and delighting web travelers is the famed Acme Laboratories site launched April 17, 1991.
Riffing off Wile E. Coyote cartoons featuring bizarre Acme contraptions, this page playfully pretended to showcase equally weird and wonderful joke inventions. But its straight-faced satire of corporate R&D centers ultimately built Acme into one of early web culture‘s most legendary inside jokes!
Poke around goofy sections like Chocolate and Anagram Registries alongside wind chimes and a link to sponsor fictional daredevil Sammy "Slamfist" Smackdown IV. Graphic buttons remain rudimentary as ever while its neon green UI burns retinas even on old CRT monitors!
Yet today, Acme‘s biggest legacy is proving entertainment deserves appreciation alongsideacademic institutions in pioneering the web itself. For both humor and remarkable historical value, I say hats off to Acme Labs!
Launch Year – 1991
Founder – Unknown
Focus – Humor and Parody
Style – Delightfully Garish Neon Design
Now buckle up as we briefly zip back to the very origins of the web itself…
STOP 7 – The First Webserver
It almost hurts realizing the world‘s first web page contained barely a paragraph of text. But that‘s exactly what awaited visitors to Info.cern.ch when Tim Berners-Lee set history in motion back on August 6, 1991.
Scrolling this shockingly basic site is gazing directly into forgotten web prehistory itself! Stark black text laying out "The birth of the web" with links like "Browse the first website" and "Learn about its creators". That‘s. It.
Yet this site‘s very lack of features or ornamentation makes it profoundly moving for those able to view computing history across decades. What you see at CERN today crystallizes the limitless world-altering vision underpinning such simple code powering humans‘ greatest collaborative achievement yet!
I mean, just compare billions of cat videos and real-time UFO trackers we nonchalantly use today against this humble first stepping stone. It‘s no hyperbole declaring Info.Cern the modern era‘s printing press moment giving every mind a global voice!
Launch Year – 1991
Organization – CERN Physics Lab
Focus – Birthplace of the World Wide Web
Style – Gloriously minimalist
Now let‘s fast forward into true dinosaur territory – an early 90s newspaper that refused to go extinct…
STOP 8 – The Tech Online
History geeks will swoon realizing MIT hosts both America‘s oldest newspaper and oldest alumni magazine founded way back in 1881! Handed out weekly on campus, The Tech became a beloved press stalwart covering MIT gossip, academic controversy, and advances emerging from its legendary labs.
Yet complementing 150 years of print, the publication took a pivotal digital leap in May 1993. MIT community news could suddenly reach beyond just student and faculty readers by launching The Tech Online website.
Over 30 years later, millions of site visitors have now enjoyed millions of articles growing up alongside the web itself. And that pink logo retaining its retro stylization funnily enough tends to generate the most nostalgic comments from MIT alumni of all vintages!
Launch Year – 1993
Organization – MIT Campus Newspaper
Focus – University News and Technology
Style – Classic early 1990s layout
Now let‘s tune our dials to a media giant makingbizillions annoying parents since the early 90s – MTV!
STOP 9 – MTV
Can you even imagine a world without music videos on demand?
Yet outside scattered late night shows, that‘s exactly the drab reality we all faced before the meteoric launch of MTV in 1981. Their 24/7 channel pioneering wild visual art and storytelling around hot new singles and albums.
Overnight, being a VJ became the coolest gig on earth helming programs watched by millions of teens like a religion. So in many ways the chaotic birth of MTV online felt inevitable…
In 1993, host Adam Curry asked to register MTV.com as a personal fan site for his own music musings. But traffic exploded so fast that Viacom squashed Curry‘s efforts and sued for ownership that same year!
Lawyers ultimately sided with the media giants. But those early years set expectations of MTV being THE hub bridging music culture and bleeding edge web innovation for decades on.
Launch Year – 1993
Organization – Viacom Media Network
Focus – Music, Entertainment, Youth Culture
Style – Evolving radical redesigns annually!
And closing out our tour of ancient web titans is a site visiting daily for breaking billionaire news…
STOP 10 – Bloomberg
Rounding out our wayback web crawl is finance mainstay Bloomberg.com registered September 30, 1993. Created by namesake founder Michael Bloomberg, it aimed to complement his private market data terminals with free news content, charts, and tools.
Think of it like a precursor to modern mobile trading apps!
Over 20 years Bloomberg remained privately held before Mike became mayor of NYC in 2002. But the site‘s legacy secured its place cementing audiences‘ expectation for rich digital market analysis mashed up with interactive multimedia.
Now boasting thousands of global reporters plus dedicated TV studios, Bloomberg‘s ambition to empower every investor with insights previously locked in towers like Wall Street proved genuinely game changing!
Launch Year – 1993
Organization – Bloomberg LP
Focus – Business and Market News
Style – Always favoring data density over aesthetics!
Still Running After Up to 35 Years!
Believe it or not, over a billion websites now populate today‘s web – that‘s ~250 Million percent growth since the 1980s!
Yet these coding pioneers from the web‘s primordial era continue soldiering on year after year. Through constantly evolving graphs, gadgets, and distractions, their sites persist as charmingly retro monuments.
More than mere novelty throwbacks though, these are living pieces of history proven by still active domains. Like famous national landmarks or precious antiques, they reveal the animating passions of wide-eyed creators who made the web much more than a virtual library.
Instead, the Net flourished into humanity‘s most open canvas empowering never-before-seen access, creativity, and community. We all owe immense gratitude to these OG brave explorers from ITcorp to Acme Labs for Trailblazing the web‘s first tentative steps in the 1980s and 90s!
So next time you browse effortlessly on your iPhone at lightning speed, I implore you to pause and marvel at this miraculous system we inherited. Appreciate its wonder glimpsing backwards from these earliest sites.
And who knows – maybe registering your own personal web page to write, play, create or share is the next small seed helping the bountiful gardens that is today‘s World Wide Web continue blooming for decades more!
