Top 10 Early Internet Things You Forgot Were Awesome
#10: Early Ebay
Some websites have lasted a long time, but aren’t quite what they used to be. Although early PayPal was also on our shortlist, Ebay, which even bought PayPal at one point, is our pick. In the late ‘90s and 2000s, Ebay was basically the biggest name in town when it came to ecommerce. Buyers could find cheap deals. Sellers could get fair prices without big fees on their end. Fast-forward to now, and the site is rife with bots, inflated prices, and anti-seller policies. Sadly, it’s still one of the better online marketplaces - but it’s a shadow of what it was.
#9: YTMND
An acronym for “You’re the man now dog,” the original version of the meme, YTMNDs are a series of websites that feature still images or looping gifs, often accompanied by similarly repeating audio files or songs. YTMNDs helped spread many early memes, like the titular “Finding Forrester” quote by Sean Connery, or the headbanging “What is Love?” And if you’re wondering how short repetitive clips could possibly have gotten so popular, perhaps you’d like to consider how much time you spend scrolling through Tik Tok or YouTube Shorts these days?
#8: “Homestar Runner”
Flash animations were all the rage in the early days of the internet. One of the most popular and prolific series was “Homestar Runner.” The cartoon follows the titular Homestar Runner, as well as various supporting characters, with several spin-offs and tie-ins to the main series, most notably the Strong Bad Emails. The goofy, bizarre, pop culture related humor made it broadly appealing, and many of its bits became memes. The series is still running today with more sporadic releases, but it still retains the down-to-earth feel and humor that made it popular decades ago.
#7: StumbleUpon
It’s easy to find yourself going down an internet rabbit hole on some obscure topic for hours today. However, the site StumbleUpon made it even more fun. With one click, StumbleUpon would take you to a completely random website. You could also filter the search to refine results and also discuss them with other users. No curated algorithm, not targeted results - just the wide-open wilderness of the world wide web and whatever weird corner of it you could find. Unfortunately, StumbleUpon was shut down in 2018. While there are alternatives, it’s just not the same.
#6: AOL Instant Messenger
Chat rooms and instant messaging were some of the coolest ways to interact with people during the dawn of the internet. One of the bigger names in the space was AOL Instant Messenger, or AIM. Writing back and forth in real time with someone was something novel back then, and users often found unique ways to utilize features, like treating the away message in the same way as a status update on social media today. However, the decline of AOL in general in the 21st century’s second decade, as well as the rise of social networking sites, spelled doom for AIM.
#5: Newgrounds
Okay, yes, Newgrounds is still around. But during its heyday, the website basically did the same jobs as half a dozen of the most popular sites of today by itself! Newgrounds was the place for online games, forums, flash animations, and artwork. It was the site where many users first discovered meme videos or even “adult” content. Newgrounds had it all! It still does have all the same features. The only problem is that people seem to want specific features from specific sites now, whereas Newgrounds is still a jack of all trades.
#4: “Weebl’s Stuff” Cartoons
One of the most popular Flash cartoon creators was British creator Jonti Picking, better known as Weebl. His Weebl’s Stuff animations achieved major viral success and spawned plenty of memes in the early internet. While all of them feature hilarious, offbeat humor, the ones that truly blew up were those that featured songs. The brightly colored animations were accompanied by silly, catchy lyrics and would loop after finishing, ensuring that the already earworm-worthy tunes got stuck in our heads for years! It’s basically become impossible for us to think about animals like badgers or narwhals without singing one of Weebl’s songs.
#3: Myspace
For a time in the mid-2000s, Myspace was the biggest social media site in the world. And it was honestly kind of great. Fully customizable homepages, with whatever background and song you wanted? The ability to embed YouTube videos? Myspace had all the options of a website builder, but with the connective tissue of social networking. The site’s popularity and accessibility helped give rise to plenty of influencers and a ton of bands. Myspace may technically still be around, but it’s barely recognizable, and it’s been far surpassed by other social sites like Facebook and Twitter. We’ll never forget the good old days though, or everyone’s mutual friend, Tom.
#2: MSN Messenger
It may not have been the first instant messaging service, but MSN was arguably the most popular. MSN offered trendsetting features, like cross platform compatibility, video calls, simple games, and emoticons. So much about MSN influenced later messaging and communication platforms, as well as a lot of the texting slang most of us use today. Microsoft may have rebranded it and other services have many of the same features now, but we still remember MSN fondly for introducing so many of them to us and for all the conversations we had on it.
#1: Flash Games
Adobe Flash may have been kind of a hot mess, but the software platform gave rise to thousands if not millions of games. Endless runners, simple platformers, tower defense, puzzle games, shooters - if you name a genre, there were probably plenty of flash games to choose from…and all for free! Sites like Addicting Games and Newgrounds were havens for an entire generation of players and game developers alike. The indie game scene would not be what it is today without Flash games. Mobile gaming may have taken over their niche, but many titles are still playable on browsers today in some form or another.
Is there a piece of internet nostalgia we forgot? Take off your boxing gloves and type up your favorites in the comments.
