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--- thenineties [2019/05/25 19:49]
gm_laurence created
+++ thenineties [2019/05/27 21:49] (current)
gm_elynor
@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 ==== The Internet in 1997 ====
-{{ :gm:keyboard_surfing_the_internet2-406x450_2_.jpg?nolink&300|}}
+{{ ::keyboard_surfing_the_internet2-406x450_2_.jpg?nolink&300| A group of cool kids surfing the World Wide Web on their trusty keyboards}}
-Right now, in the year 2018, there are nearly 2 billion websites currently on the world wide web. Out of those, maybe 1% are actually active. In 1997, there was about 150,000. The most popular internet browser was **Netscape Navigator**, followed by **Internet Explorer** (a new piece of software that hadn’t yet picked up momentum). The fastest modems available in ‘97 provided a whopping 56 kilobytes per second of internet, and the largest computer monitors available were about 800x600. Dial-up internet was still the norm, which used the phone lines to establish a connection to the ISP. Although you couldn’t use the phone while connected and the connection was slow, the sound of a dial-up modem connecting became a cultural touchstone.
+Right now, in the year 2019, there are nearly 2 billion websites currently on the world wide web. Out of those, maybe 1% are actually active. In 1997, there were about 150,000. The most popular internet browser was **Netscape Navigator**, followed by **Internet Explorer** (a new piece of software that hadn’t yet picked up momentum). The fastest modems available in ‘97 provided a whopping 56 kilobytes per second of internet, and the largest computer monitors available were about 800x600. Dial-up internet was still the norm, which used the phone lines to establish a connection to the ISP. Although you couldn’t use the phone while connected and the connection was slow, the sound of a dial-up modem connecting became a cultural touchstone.
 **Yahoo** was the web’s most popular search engine and web portal, but **Webcrawler** and **Altavista** were the favoured engines of the consummate surfer, **Webcrawler** being the first search engine to feature full text search. Bedroom coders were already making their own websites with a little help from popular hosting services, **Angelfire**, **Geocities** and **Tripod**. **eBay** had just recently launched, and was starting to take off, while **Google** floundered in obscurity for the time being. In ‘94, **The Telegraph** became the first UK newspaper to have their own website, and **the BBC** launched followed suit with a subscription based news-page in ‘96.
-While there were some comparatively larger forum spaces, most of the internet’s social scene took place on independent forum message-boards, hosted on services like **WIT** and **phpBB**. Often forums organised around a specific niche interest. [[:cryptonet|CryptoNet]] is one such niche community. As with any enclosed community, the members of these forums develop their own shared set of references, vocabulary, and experiences. In ‘97, going from forum to forum could be like crossing the border into a different country altogether.
+While there were some comparatively larger forum spaces, most of the internet’s social scene took place on independent forum message-boards, hosted on services like **WIT** and **phpBB**. Often forums organised around a specific niche interest. [[cryptonet|CryptoNet]] is one such niche community. As with any enclosed community, the members of these forums develop their own shared set of references, vocabulary, and experiences. In ‘97, going from forum to forum could be like crossing the border into a different country altogether.
 You can find some [[http://www.oocities.org/|archived geocities pages]] here.
@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 ==== The UK in 1997 ====
-{{ :gm:blair-97.jpg?nolink&300|}}
+{{ :blair-97.jpg?nolink&300|Tony Blair won a landslide Labour victory in 1997}}
-Earlier in the year the government changed in a landslide, and in November the Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The UK economy was booming, fueled by a burgeoning speculator bubble, not to pop completely for another decade. The first Harry Potter book is published, starting a cultural phenomenon, Pokemon was introduced to an American audience (leaving Europeans to wait for another year), and Dolly the sheep was cloned in Scotland.
+Earlier in the year, the government changed in a landslide, and in November the Queen and Prince Philip celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. The UK economy was booming, fueled by a burgeoning speculator bubble, not to pop completely for another decade. The first Harry Potter book is published, starting a cultural phenomenon, Pokemon was introduced to an American audience (leaving Europeans to wait for another year), and Dolly the sheep was cloned in Scotland.
 In the Christmas musical charts, Aqua’s masterpiece of dance-pop, //Barbie Girl//, had finally been pushed out of a month long stint at number one by ensemble charity single, //Perfect Day//. At the box office, //Alien Resurrection// was soon to be eclipsed in success by Pierce Brosnan’s second outing as 007 in //Tomorrow Never Dies//. Neither would reach the lofty heights of record-setting movie, //Titanic//, from earlier in the year. //Baywatch//, the smash hit TV show that was already the most watched TV show in history, was about halfway through its eighth season, with Carmen Electra joining the show as the newest piece of family-friendly lifeguard cheesecake.

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