28 Iconic Websites from the Internet’s Early Days That Most Gen Z Missed Out On

Some of these classics will bring back memories you didn’t know you missed!

Sophia

• Published in Technology
• November 14, 2024

Today’s internet is a streamlined, essential part of everyday life, but a few decades ago, it was a quirky, unpredictable frontier. Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the internet was a little more experimental—it was a chaotic mix of homemade websites with minimal graphics, strange animations, and, often, a lot of blinking text.

There were no sophisticated search engines or social media; instead, users navigated through countless weird and wonderful sites, each a digital adventure of its own.

In the early days, internet connections were slow, and web pages often took minutes to load. Sites like GeoCities and AOL gave ordinary people the chance to create their own web pages, leading to an explosion of eccentric personal sites and communities.

Early internet users spent hours browsing unique, sometimes bizarre, websites that entertained and connected them in ways we rarely see today. Many of these pioneering sites have faded away, but for those who experienced them, they hold a special place in Internet history.

So, let’s journey back to the internet’s wilder years and explore 28 classic sites that younger generations missed out on. If this list brings back memories, share it with friends, and let’s remember the internet’s humble, humorous beginnings!

1. "Neopets and Homestar Runner!"

those were such a vibe back in the day.

2. "Thinkgeek dot com"

They used to have the coolest s**t ever.

3. "Yahoo answers "

"Im 13 yrs old . Am I pregunt? " .

4. "Habbo hotel."

5. "The prime of MySpace.com."

6. "Limewire virus initiation."

7. "Cracked.com"

so much great content back in the day.

8. "Hamster Dance."

9. "All the old Macromedia Shockwave / Flash sites before Adobe bought Flash and it became the internet’s favorite malware vector."

10. "Home star runner."

It's still up and running, nothing is stopping kids now a days from going and looking at it but I've never met anyone born in 2000 or after who has ever even heard of it.

11. "Digg back when Digg was relevant."

It was my homepage for YEARS and how I discovered new stuff across the internet before Reddit came along.

12. "GaiaOnline, even though it still exists today."

13. "Googling "French military victories" and then hitting the "I'm feeling lucky" button."

14. "Forums in general were great community spaces that you just don’t get on Reddit or Facebook groups."

15. "EbaumsWorld, AlbinoBlacksheep, Newgrounds, Homestar Runner, and Xanga"

were where I spent a good chunk of my early teens.

16. "Stumbleupon."

17. "Rotten.com."

18. "Something Awful, though the forums are still going strong. On that note: G****e."

19. "The original addictinggames dot com."

20. "Icanhazcheezburger."

21. "The separation of Google and Froogle. "

If I wanted to search for things and info, use Google. If I wanted to search for products to buy, use Froogle. Now the top hits on Google are all just things for sale.

22. "YTMND Flash games"

How easy it truly was back in the day to download music/tv/movies through Napster or Kazaa lite.

23. "Not so much a specific site, but the fact that the early internet (talking 1990s here) was a “high trust society”. "

The only people online were university students and relatively well off people who were genuinely interested in this new technology. So you could meet people on a random IRC channel or telnet talker or whatever and within days or hours you may have swapped real life phone numbers and addresses with them so you could send each other cool stuff in the mail.

I got so many cool packages from various overseas countries back in the day and made genuine friendships online in a way that you just couldn’t do today. It wasn’t filled with scammers and the like. You could safely give your actual street address to someone you’d only talked to for a week (especially if they were on a different continent, like what are they gonna do?)

Incidentally I met my wife this way. We were online friends for a while, living on opposite sides of the planet. We sent each other presents in the mail etc. Eventually in the late 90s decided to pay the thousands of dollars to fly to meet in person and the rest is history.

Back then, relationships that started online were super rare, but now I think the majority do, thanks to dating sites and the like.

24. "Just, sort of, the concept of websites. Yes we obviously have them today, but everything is just extremely condensed in terms of traffic. Everyone's on Google, Amazon, and reddit."

It used to be that you actually had fun "surfing" the web (yeah I just now at this instant realized this isn't really a term anymore), finding nifty different sites, telling your friends of your findings and adventures, etc.

Not too early web but stumbleupon was big for that. 

I think this condensation started with Facebook. A friend and I had a realization at one point that we didn't really use "websites" anymore, but that even "websites" for companies or ideas or whatnot were just Facebook pages. Since then Facebook is now not as popular, but the point remains. .

25. "Zombo com."

26. "When people did stuff for fun and because it was cool, not to make money."

Basically, when the internet felt like it was mostly people, not mostly companies.

27. "Youtube pre-ads."

A magical time.

28. "Bonsai Kitten"

People were so gullible and convinced it was real that the FBI got involved.

Reflecting on these classic websites, it’s clear that the early internet was less about utility and more about creativity, curiosity, and a sense of wonder. These digital relics remind us of a time when the web was a wild, unpolished playground—a testament to how far we’ve come.

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Sophia