Time Travel to the Internet of Your Youth With 6 Classic Websites That Somehow Still Exist
The Lost Internet: Something has survived.
Domain registered: March 3, 2008
The most recent item on our list, this is an in-universe site made by a woman Barney treated poorly on How I Met Your Mother, but he told her he was Ted. She created a website about what a jerk he is on the show, which was set up on the real Internet. More than six years later (8 going by the show’s timeline), it still exists to remind the world that Ted Mosby is a jerk. It maybe comically bad on purpose, but you probably forgot it existed when you tried to Eternal Sunshine all knowledge of HIMYM out of your brain after the finale. So, go check it out and remember the good times.
Comically bad Internet features:
- Auto-playing audio embed
- Shoddy 2006-style personal blog construction
- Old-school visitor count
- Quality “Ted Mosby” art:
#5. Myspace
Domain registered: February 22, 1996, abandoned circa when Facebook began.
Shots fired. Sorry, Myspace, but I have probably forgotten and was reminded that you exist on at least five separate occasions despite the fact that you’re the only site on this list that actually still receives updates.
Next-generation web features:
- Convoluted modern design with giant image tiles and auto-play video
- Unclear purpose
- No safe place to put your mouse without triggering fancy things:
#6. Space Jam (also of course)
Domain registered: Another subdomain, but it was last updated in 1996. Actually, both this and Gilmore Girls are on www2.warnerbros.com, which you can try to mine for yourself for more ancient web goodies. (Like this 2001 Superman on DVD and VHS site.)
Here’s your chance. Do your dance. This is another one that’s made the Internet rounds a few times, but it is the quintessential old movie site. Just look at that tiled background! The almost deliberately hard to read text! The “powered by Geocities” feel. It’s like coming home.
Cool Interweb features:
- Disorienting time period mashup as the store link still works but keeps the site’s frames:
- Fancy GIFs:
- Postcards
- Sound clips
- Screensavers
- Basically everything it was possible to have on the Internet back then
Of course, these are only some of the ones we could dig up. There are plenty more sites out there, like this 2003 one for Looney Tunes Back in Action, A Walk to Remember from 2002, and a Klingon language database registered in 1994. So go ahead and poke around on these sites, make some retro postcards, and have a fun time-traveling experience.
If you’ve got any of your own favorite vintage websites, let us (and each other) know in the comments.
(images via screenshots)
- Kids react to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon of our childhood
- This 17-year-old PhD student is teaching robots to learn from humans, what have you been up to?
- Kids don’t understand the Apple computers we once used
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