The history of Internet hype

Posted: March 26th, 2011 | 13 Comments »

I am working on a slide retracing the history of Internet/Web hype. Remember the “you need a second life island” days, or the “portal” phenomena? What were the things you HAD to have as an organization or business to survive on the Internet? Did it work out (Facebook, Twitter), did it dissolve in the rest of the web (homepage, blog, portal) or did it falter (MySpace, RSS)?

Please help me add what is missing via email or comments!

[Updated image following your feedback, click to enlarge]

First version:

13 Comments on “The history of Internet hype”

  1. 1 mccasal said at 13:09 on March 26th, 2011:

    1998: you need a Flash splash screen

  2. 2 Dejan said at 15:35 on March 26th, 2011:

    There was a time around 2001-2002 (I guess) when we all had to have XML somewhere, whether it was the best tool for a task or not.

  3. 3 David Pitkin said at 16:14 on March 26th, 2011:

    What about you need a WAP gateway mobile website, iPhone/iPad application

  4. 4 karl said at 17:08 on March 26th, 2011:

    1996: What you do not have a pointcast push service?
    2002: Friendster that’s the place!
    2003: Are you on linkedin?
    2004: Your band so need to be on myspace.

  5. 5 galipeau said at 19:12 on March 26th, 2011:

    1999 – mp3s on Napster (or cheesy porn on Gnutella/eDonkey)
    1995 – you got mail!!!

  6. 6 laurent said at 20:21 on March 26th, 2011:

    pointcast!! I had forgotten that one :)

  7. 7 Doreen said at 23:52 on March 27th, 2011:

    2010: Plancast
    2011: Quora

  8. 8 Alexis said at 01:15 on March 28th, 2011:

    1993 you need a modem
    1994 you need an email
    2012 you need a life
    ;-)

  9. 9 The history of Internet hype » Article » OWNI.eu, News, Augmented said at 11:33 on April 1st, 2011:

    [...] This post was originally published on Laurent Haug’s blog [...]

  10. 10 Emily Turrettini said at 13:54 on April 4th, 2011:

    You had to have a power point presentation.

    You had to attend a First Tuesday

  11. 11 Emily Turrettini said at 13:55 on April 4th, 2011:

    You had to have a cue cat

  12. 12 Emily Turrettini said at 14:12 on April 4th, 2011:

    Désolée,, j’ai oublié d’inclure les dates: Voici:

    You had to pitch your start up with a power point presentation (1998- 2000)

    You had to attend a First Tuesday (1999 – 2000): The networking club founded by Nick Denton held in many cities around the world that brought together investors and entrepreneurs.

    You had to have a CueCat (late 90s) – enabling a user to open a link to an Internet URL by scanning a barcode

  13. 13 Raphaël Briner said at 11:47 on April 15th, 2011:

    Missing: “you are not on Google ?” SEO importance recognition. Impossible to date it maybe.

    Worse: “You need an app” Faltered in 1 year.

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