Then there's the official Space Jam site (the movie with Michael Jordan, you might want to ask IMDB) which is still up (Kudos to WB:) http://www2.warnerbros.com/spacejam/movie/jam.htm Click around there to see some spinning buttons and other "nice" stuff.
There was nothing like the anticipation of the modem dialing, wondering what speed you'd get based on the handshake, or my personal favorite, picking up the phone and getting your younger brother kicked off, just because.
There was so much more excitement all around. The technology was arcane compared to what's possible today, but most of the bad stuff was missing. People were looking for ways to use, not abuse the internet.
There were barely any lawyers, marketers or managers who felt the need to interfere. Things were driven by sysadmins and their curiosity, just governed by gentlemen's agreements and common sense.
You could go on irc (with mIRC) and talk to strangers who where thrilled about talking to people around the globe. Like chatroulette or whatever but without the dicks and trolling.
I remember discussing scientific stuff, Harry Potter, and the new online games with people on Yahoo chatrooms and IRC.
I took a look at Yahoo chatrooms some time recently (well, in the last five years anyway.) It was horrible; spambots all over the place trying to get you to click on links. I suppose all the real people moved to Facething.
However, it was only (mostly?) like that for personal/very-low-budget pages. It's not like all designers back then had suddenly lost their sense of aesthetic.
It's not very different from the MySpace profiles of a few years ago.
Yes. This is incredibly accurate. The spinning "HOT" gif might actually be executed a little too well for the 90s.
The professional web was bad back then, but usually in slightly different ways. For instance, there were a few years where it was incredibly common to have a splash page that did nothing but show a logo (and take 45 seconds to load). Splash pages became a bit of a trend in part because there was an influential (but terrible) web design book that recommended making your user see a completely useless page before letting them get to actual content.
It was like any new technology. People played with it and used it in stupid ways while they figured out how to use it. Some people learned faster than others.
Sadly, no. I got rid of my copy long ago, and I didn't buy it on Amazon. I want to say the title used the word 'Awesome', but I'm not even sure about that.
