--- description: In late 1994, my mind was boggled -- permanently. title: 10 Things I Remember About the First Time I Used the Web image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa3c5d2dbf2ca822/698685243bc9995efb1a24d0/image15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 10 Things I Remember About the First Time I Used the Web by [Harry McCracken](/author/harry-mccracken/) ## Harry McCracken Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 12, 2014 8:32 PM CUT  Yahoo as it looked in 1994, the first year I tried the web Yahoo as it looked in 1994, the first year I tried the webYahoo by [Harry McCracken](/author/harry-mccracken/) ## Harry McCracken Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 12, 2014 8:32 PM CUT As we celebrate [the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web today](http://time.com/21039/tim-berners-lee-web-proposal-at-25/ "undefined"), I’d like to say that I was smart enough to get on the web the moment that it was possible to do so — which, if you weren’t one of Tim Berners-Lee’s colleagues at CERN, was in August, 1991\. But in truth, I was a latecomer, relatively speaking. I didn’t surf the web until the fall of 1994, whereupon I immediately felt embarrassed for not having latched onto it earlier. Once I experienced it for myself, it made quite an impression. I remember virtually everything about that first browsing session — why it happened, what I did, even the conference room I was sitting in and the orientation of my chair. Would you mind if I got nostalgic for a moment? Or 10 moments, to be precise? **1\. I was already an old pro at going online.** I started dialing into online services in either 1978 or early 1979, via a roaring 300-bits-per-second modem which you connected to the phone line by sticking the handset into [a couple of foam cups](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mwkw6UGwalI/Uhg%5FUj6LQPI/AAAAAAAABZU/mniY4XJj1uc/s640/Acoustic-Coupler1.jpg "undefined"). Among the services I used early on were [CBBS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBBS "undefined") (the first bulletin board system) and [the Source](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FSource%5F%28online%5Fservice%29 "undefined") (the first online service targeting only consumers). I also belonged to CompuServe, GEnie, AOL and BIX — maybe all four at the same time at one point. **2\. I knew about the Internet long before I used it.** My father worked at Boston University, and had access to the service back when it was known as [ARPANET](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARPANET "undefined") and available only to government employees and academics. He raved about it. I’m not sure why I didn’t beg him to give me a tour. **3\. I remember the first time I heard about the World Wide Web.** It was no later than mid-1993, I think. My friend [Bob Stepno](https://www.twitter.com/bobstep "undefined"), a more forward-looking individual than myself, told me about it and described it as “point-and-click Internet.” Again, I was intrigued but did not take any action to try it. **4\. I remember what I was doing on the Internet before I used the web.** I was sending e-mail to people on other online services, for one thing — and yes, there was an era when that was hot stuff. I also used information retrieval services such as [Gopher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher%5F%28protocol%29 "undefined"), [Archie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie%5Fsearch%5Fengine "undefined") and [Veronica](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veronica%5F%28search%5Fengine%29 "undefined"), all of which seemed exciting at the time. **5\. I remember why I tried the web.** I’d just started working at _PC World_ magazine in Boston, and my boss, [Eric Bender](https://www.twitter.com/ebender00 "undefined"), thought we should know about this stuff. (I believe that _PCW_ was already working on launching its own site.) **6\. I remember who showed me the web.** Pete Loshin, the guy who Eric hired to do a little workshop for us. He’s [still teaching people about technology](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9%5Fsc%5F1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Apeter+loshin&keywords=peter+loshin&ie=UTF8&qid=1394656116 "undefined"). **7\. I remember which browser I used.** [NCSA Mosaic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic%5F%28web%5Fbrowser%29 "undefined"), of course — the definitive web browser until Netscape Navigator, which was just coming out in beta, displaced it shortly thereafter. **8\. I remember the first site I tried.** Yahoo! Pete explained to me that it made it very easy to find stuff on almost any topic, just by typing in a quick search. The site was roughly 10 months old at the time, and was not yet a full-fledged company. **9\. I remember the first thing I did.** I searched for _Krazy Kat_, one of my favorite comic strips. I don’t remember how many results popped up — it might have been as few as ten or so — but I was dazzled. (Today, the same query on Yahoo gets you [258,000 results](https://search.yahoo.com/search;%5Fylt=Ahd6TBjf5pZKe4JdCkZ9wT7O2FxH?toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-hrtab-901&p=%22krazy+kat%22 "undefined").) **10\. I remember what I did next.** I signed up with an early ISP — I’m pretty sure it was PSINet, although I jumped around a lot for a while, and sometimes had more than one account at a time — and never looked back. So what are _your_ earliest memories of the web? ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/21867/10-things-i-remember-about-the-first-time-i-used-the-web/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/21867/10-things-i-remember-about-the-first-time-i-used-the-web/"},"headline":"10 Things I Remember About the First Time I Used the Web","datePublished":"2014-03-12T20:32:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:42.746Z","description":"In late 1994, my mind was boggled -- permanently.","url":"https://time.com/21867/10-things-i-remember-about-the-first-time-i-used-the-web/","keywords":["Tech","History","Technologizer"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa3c5d2dbf2ca822/698685243bc9995efb1a24d0/image15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Harry McCracken","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/harry-mccracken/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltaa3c5d2dbf2ca822/698685243bc9995efb1a24d0/image15.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Yahoo in 1994","caption":"Yahoo in 1994","creditText":"Yahoo","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/21867/10-things-i-remember-about-the-first-time-i-used-the-web/","name":"10 Things I Remember About the First Time I Used the Web"}}]}] ```