From clip art to Comic Sans: These screenshots from 25 years ago show just how much the internet has

Glamorous Persona
2021-07-24T12:10:00Z
  • A report from Morgan Stanley analysts in 1996 predicted the prevalence of the internet. 
  • It said a person of intermediate web literacy was anyone who simply knew their own email address.
  • From clip art to Comic Sans, screenshots show how different the internet looks 25 years later.

Morgan Stanley tech analysts Mary Meeker and Chris DePuy knew the world was on the cusp of something big in 1996. They drafted a 323-page report expressing their high hopes for the internet, saying it could be "one of the hottest new markets to develop in years."

Looking back on the report now shows just how far the internet has come in 25 years.  

For starters, the report shows how rare some now-common internet activities were in the past. Among 150 million estimated PC users around the globe, the authors estimated 23% had used email for work, 6% had used the web, and 5% had used an online service. 

"We feel that e-mail, online/Web access may be ubiquitous for PC users within a decade," the authors wrote. "At a minimum, e-mail should become pervasive. So should Internet/Web access: E-mail is the 'killer application' of the Internet today, and browsing through information services the 'killer app' of tomorrow."

Another marker of the web's progress came from the authors' guide to the report for audiences of varying levels of internet literacy. 

Meeker and DePuy defined a novice reader of the report as someone who had "never heard of Motley Fool, CNET, or Yahoo." An intermediate audience was just anyone who "knows [their] own email address."  

Take a glimpse at the internet of yesteryear with these screenshots of websites from 25 years ago.

 

 

McDonald's

Web Design Museum

Microsoft

Web Design Museum

AOL

Web Design Museum

Blockbuster

Web Design Museum

Xerox

Coca-Cola

Web Design Museum

Amazon

Web Design Museum

Nokia

Web Design Museum

Mercedes-Benz

Web Design Museum

Sony

Web Design Museum

Almanac.com

Web Design Museum

Ebay

Web Design Museum

GAP

Web Design Museum

Comedy Central

Web Design Museum

Intel

Web Design Museum

Frito-Lay

Web Design Museum

American Express

Web Design Museum

IBM

Web Design Museum

Yahoo

Web Design Museum

MT V2

Web Design Museum

AltaVista

Web Design Museum

The Weather Channel

Web Design Museum

The White House

Web Design Museum

Nintendo

Web Design Museum

Kodak

Web Design Museum

Pepsi

Web Design Museum

MSN

Web Design Museum

Netscape

Web Design Museum

Dell

Web Design Museum

Epic Games

Web Design Museum

MIT

Web Design Museum

Disney

Web Design Museum

Microsoft Windows 95

Web Design Museum

The X-Files

Web Design Museum

1996 Olympic Games

Web Design Museum

HP

Web Design Museum

Adobe

Web Design Museum

FedEx

Web Design Museum

UPS

Web Design Museum

Pizza Hut

Web Design Museum

Toyota

Web Design Museum

Adidas

Web Design Museum

Hertz

Web Design Museum

National Hockey League

Web Design Museum

GeoCities

Web Design Museum

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