As a millennial elder, I remember when the internet was completely uncharted territory. Lots of new things to discover and experience, with apparently no rules. The World Wide Web was truly the Wild West, and we were brave internet explorers.
With the sheer speed with which information travels through social media today, we are used to internet trends that simply come and go. So much so that we may have forgotten some gemstones that were once considered a “it” thing.
Remember the joys unparalleled in making NEOPET happy? Or the instant self-esteem boost you get when you see it counter hit location Climb up in the bottom corner of your virtual masterpiece? (Remember, we didn’t have “parables” to base ourselves on during this dark period.) These are just a few traces of a not-so-distant past – once cherished, but now buried in antiquity.
A Reddit user recently asked:What was the thing the internet was crazy about but is now forgotten?“And people’s answers have been a wild nostalgia ride. Use this list for a walk down memory lane, or to confuse a Generation Z friend. Either way, it’s a bit fun—something the internet will always be a good source for.”
Without further ado, here are 9 of the strangest internet trends that no one remembers:
1. Download custom cursor effects to your PC
Ah yes, who wants to see a boring arrow moving around their screen when they can pretend it Fairy dust wave around? Or rainbows, or snowflakes, or bubbles, for that matter. There really was just something magical about facilitating cursors. Sure, it’s full of bugs, but sometimes that’s the price to pay for a bit of a whim, isn’t it?
“I gave my family’s computer a lot of viruses back in the 2000s trying to click things with a lightsaber.” – @TW1103
2. Pre-Google search engines
One engine to search for all of them….
Awesome, it’s hard to imagine a time when googling wasn’t a real word. Believe it or not, kids, it was all a go when searching for obscure movie trivia or long-lost recipes.
Every website is a search engine He had his own personality—Alta Vista opted for a no-frills approach, Dogpile made a (never funny) joke of the day, and Ask Jeeves offered a character-based clever server in Novel series by P.G. Wodehouseready to quench all curiosity that comes in the form of a question.
Many of these separate quirks were downright revolutionary, and while they were swallowed up by the widespread success of Google, they clearly inspired much of their overall format. Sure, other search engines still exist, but I think we can all agree that Google is sovereign.
3. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM)
Hulu’spen 15Centered on two middle school students in the early 2000s, it neatly nailed everything about AOL chatrooms—from dystopian screen names, to distant melodramatic messages, to the obnoxious login sound that Pavlovian influence on Teens, involuntarily drawing their eyes to the screen.It is pure gold.
Of course, there are some aspects of AIM that might be best forgotten – primarily the dangerous way in which teens can be easily exploited.
“I was 14 but playing 17 because 17 ‘growed up’ too much for me, but I didn’t feel there was enough age difference to tell the lie.” – @KayleighJK
“I was 13 years old pretending to be 18 in AOL chat rooms. I was exposed to a lot of things at a young age. Imagine if I said my actual age” – @Chickeggsandlegs
4. Flash games
Did you get Flash?
Flash games – They are often free, very easy to play and usually only require Adobe Flash. according to Comic Book Resources (CBR), one flash game in particular called “Club Penguin” was so beloved that when it closed in 2017, “thousands of players logged in in the last moments of the game, and did everything they could in the game before it ended.” forever . ”
5. Smart Guestbook
This was definitely nice.
A very easy and direct way to connect with people around the world. Visitors from all over the world can “sign” digitally and Leave a personal message, usually things like “Hi, I really enjoyed your website, I had the pleasure of browsing.” See now that was nice? Not quite like the aggressive Yelp reviews we’re used to.
6. GeoCities
Too few pixels, too little time.
In science fiction and fantasy? Head to “Area51”. More sports fans? Click on “Colosseum”. GeoCities View virtual neighborhoods based on specific interests, all in locations full of flashy graphics and some hot new stuff called GIF. This was a time when enthusiasm for the Internet as a space for community building and self-expression was at an all-time high, even if looking back at implementation was primitive.
Although the days of GeoCities are long gone, some remnants of its glory remain, such as this is.
7. Webrings
In the bachelor era (before the algorithm).
As a MIC . contributor Brittany Vincent put it so brilliantlyWebrings are forgotten relics of the past, a solution created to solve a problem that no longer exists. Back when websites were expensive and limited – not to mention search engines didn’t quite hit their stride – there was a little box at the bottom of the site you were actually visiting, which revealed more magical places to visit based on the location you were currently.. Well, that was the ultimate luxury.
“Man, if you find a ring on the internet that you are interested in it is like gold. Save! Not to be confused with StumbleUpon, that was later on as well as magical.” —DanAykroydFanClub
Which leads us to…
8. StumbleUpon
Who knows where you will find?
Back in the day, the internet wasn’t an all-knowing entity fed from algorithms. Part of the fun was the endless exploration through the mystery. There is no better example of this than StumbleUpon, where visitors click a button and land somewhere else at random. It was an online roulette game. That was exciting.
9. Badass on Facebook
Hey… I’m still here…
Sometimes, the Internet imitates life. Such was the case with Facebook’s “twitch” feature, where users could click a button to remind another user of their presence. Was that useless? yes. Was it intrusive? Yes too. Regardless, it was all rage.
Like many Facebook features, the “pokes” in a barrage of notifications can disappear, which can lead to less than perfect realization.
“I had a friend poke me and I never noticed the notification. He died. I now have this unreturned poke as a reminder that I will never be able to return it again.” – @Klaus0225
It’s time to surf the web!
Sure, today’s technology is faster, more efficient, and far-reaching, but we will always have a place in our hearts for the shaky early magic of the Internet. Kind of like those old annual photos…