The Best of 404PageFound and Other Primitive 90s Websites That Still Exist

The idea that one day something hits the Internet, stays there forever, is not true. Things are disappearing from the Internet all the time, from once-thriving online communities that are dying because their hosting company went bankrupt, to publications whose archives are being erased, to personal sites that disappear when their owners stop paying their server bills. But the sites below are the soldiers of the 1990s who escaped all these pitfalls to give us a glimpse into the early Internet and a way to see ourselves online.

I started with an excellent collection 404PageFound, that somehow still works, and then go a little further in the search for some of these “diamonds”.

Personal Sites: The Soul of the Early Internet

In a world before Twitter, TikTok, and Youtube, the thought of posting your important thoughts to a potentially global audience without filters was incredibly dizzying for people tired of boring their friends and family. The World Wide Web made this possible, and as a culture, we realized that most people are not very interesting.

• Jim’s Website : These “personal” sites were Twitter users with three followers on the old network. There were billions of them: some guy opens an introductory page, adds a few “funny” pictures and a few links to random other sites, and then quits. Nobody visits and he sits there, never visited monument of platitude. This one was rescued from Geocities through the restorativland project.
• Vanity Plates: This site of fun vanity license plates was created in 1996 and was last updated in 1999. It looks like a time capsule of self-made internet times thanks to its simplified design and frame-based navigation. and many “awards” from other websites (including the prestigious HomePC Wild and Wacky site Award).
• Spork.org : Don’t be offended by whoever created this fan page in 1995, but this is “Am I so random?” artificial admiration for a fat man is not funny; this is depressing, especially after 25 years.
• The courtesy lives of kings, peers, saints, knights and commoners : I have an intense love-hate for this 2003 Angelfire page. This is the lifelong work of Margaret Sipnevskaya, who has been researching genealogy and history from the very beginning. 1960s Amazing right? But her website design is so awful that it literally hurts to read.
• Inside X: I’m in love with this X-Files page. Fans sat down and printed detailed descriptions of each scene and dialogue line for each X-Files episode over its 11 years of existence, as well as the Lone Shooters episode and the Simpsons / X-Files crossover. What a dedication!

Artists and thinkers

Along with personal websites, no joke or no joke, the intellectuals and artists of the early days asked themselves what this whole web thing was about, and no one predicted that it would start as a way to pay our bills online and end up driving everyone crazy.

• Parallel / Suzanne Treister – Hall : Concepts no idea what’s going on with this Australian site. This is a kind of virtual tour of the castle in the form of modified photographs, but there are a bunch of stylized swastikas. Maybe anti-fascist? Pro-Nazi? In any case, this is part of the November 1995 issue of PARALLEL magazine, which “features the interdisciplinary work of artists and writers. It fosters ongoing research into web practices and theories. ” Check it out: your guess is as good as mine .
• Simulator : This 1997 web art experiment attempts to explore the “line between the simulacrum of the Internet and the mundane physical existence” through a take-your-own-adventure journey during a slave day. A fun and clever subversive game, the Simulator is still working!

Primitive entertainment marketing

While ordinary people and artists tried to harness the power of the Internet, marketers quickly realized that it was best used to get people to watch your movies and TV shows.

• The Nanny : I don’t know why, but The Nanny’s original website continues to live on, providing fans with photos of the actors , an episode guide, and a phone number where they can get tickets to record The Nanny ‘s live stream .
• Space Jam : website Space Jam since 1996, but recently it has been moved from its original location on SpaceJam.com in a new home. I’m just glad they kept it.
• Jurassic Park : This marketing site for the original Jurassic Park dates back to 1997 and is one of the earliest examples of smart movie marketing. All this in the form of an internal network of InGen employees.
• A Field Guide for North American Men . For unexplained reasons, Marjorie Ingall’s “Barely Book” site still exists, a testament to good design. Sure, it’s outdated, but its clearly presented information, minimalist look and really funny text make me want to buy this book – you can buy it for 50 cents on Amazon .

Flash Cemetery

When Flash took over web design in the late 1990s, many innovative, creative websites were created that didn’t load properly. I would point you out to the good ones, but they are all dead, the victims of the outbreak are no longer supported – this is the way it is, with all the great efforts of Man. However , check out this blog post to find out about some of the most famous sites for the Flash Revolution.

Web 1.0 Policy

Back in the 1990s, online propaganda was not supported by the shadowy work of boiler houses in the countries of the former Eastern Bloc. It was a homegrown and organic plant and some of it survived.

• DoleKemp96: Bob Dole’s site asking to vote for me is unnatural and outdated, but it is the first presidential site in history and was groundbreaking at the time. In addition, it is still hosted under its original domain name, and the history of its development and preservation is fascinating. You can also head over to the Clinton / Gore website for downloadable splash screens and rotating gifs.
• People Eat Delicious Animals : Owning libraries on the Internet is nothing new. This parody site seems to be designed to anger sensitive liberals. It contains all sorts of information about meat and an extensive hate mailing list section . I can only assume that his continued existence is reduced to sheer malice.
• McSpotlight : In the interest of providing equal time for left-handed propaganda, use this site since 1996. It has serious problems with McDonald’s and contains all sorts of fiery (if outdated) criminal business practices, legal strategies, and more.

No sale

Many people made a lot of money in the 1990s and 2000s buying and selling web domain names, but despite the potentially lucrative domain names, the two sites below have proudly been indie since the mid-1990s.

• Taco.com : Technical Advisors provides system and network administration. “We don’t sell tacos. We don’t do tacos. in fact, some of us don’t even really like them. ” This is purely speculation, but you have to assume that someone offered them something for the domain name at some point. But instead, they maintain their site from the 1990s era.
• Milk.com : Dan Borstein says milk.com is “not for sale.” He has run the site since 1994 and says he likes the name and doesn’t need money – unless the price is high enough. “If you don’t offer $ 10 million, I don’t care,” Borstein writes.

Hall of Fame

The sites below are among the OG of the Internet era 1.0. They have always existed and are still known.

• Heaven’s Gate: Most members of the Heavens Gate flying saucer cult committed suicide in 1997, but the website remains and is reportedly backed by two living members of the group. They keep it exactly as it was when it was launched – an eerie tribute trapped in an amber trap.
• FogCam: One of the first webcams on the Internet, FogCam has been broadcasting a view of the San Francisco State University campus since 1994, when looking at an alien campus was a technological revolution.
• Aliweb : Aliweb, one of the first search engines, proves the old adage that being first is not always the key to success. Aliweb required sites to submit their information instead of indexing what was already there, so it didn’t work. But the homepage has been around since 1994 and is filled with links as dead as its business model.
• Zombo.com : The parody site zombo.com is legendary for doing nothing. The early web-style “promise everything, nothing delivers” parody, Zombo bragging, and extended flash animations are inexplicable without backstory, but it’s amazing anyway.

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