Since the birth of the Internet (over 25 years ago), websites have undergone thousands of changes, and their development has gone far ahead thanks to rapidly advancing technologies. It is already difficult to remember how the sites looked in the past, but the early versions of many well-known resources were completely different. Let's take a look at them.
View before and now
1. Google.com : start in 1996
The Google search engine, created in 1996 as an educational project by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, is today the largest company in the world. The first screenshot depicts one of the earliest options for the appearance of Google, and the second shows a modern design:
2. Facebook.com : start in 2004
Eight years after Google, Facebook was invented by Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University. Known as TheFacebook, the project was initially available only to Harvard classmates. Today, the attendance of this social network is 1.71 billion active users per month.
3. MySpace.com: start in 2003
Before Facebook appeared, the MySpace platform was a popular social network. She is one of the first social networks, but sites like Twitter and Facebook have already replaced her from the leading place. In 2005, Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace for $ 580 million from founders Chris Devulf and Tom Anderson. After MySpace began to rapidly lose its audience, Murdoch was rumored to have sold it for $ 35 million, calling the purchase a “huge mistake.”
4. Yahoo.com: start in 1994
In early 1994, Stanford University graduate students David Filo and Jerry Young created a portal called Jerry's World Wide Web Guide, which is a catalog of other websites. Later that year, the site was renamed Yahoo !.
There are several versions of the origin of this name. Some claim that Yahoo! is an acronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”. Others believe that the name was borrowed from D. Swift’s Gulliver’s book, where the word “yahoo” refers to rude humanoid creatures. By the way, the founders of the company call the second version the correct one.
5. YouTube.com : start in 2005
6. Wikipedia.org: start in 2001
The voluminous online encyclopedia of Wikipedia has forever changed the approach to obtaining information for entire generations. Although Wikipedia has not changed much in terms of appearance since its launch in 2001, it has grown exponentially: there are more than 30 million articles on the site.
7. MSN.com: start in 1995
MSN (Microsoft Network) was launched in 1995. In the early 2000s, MSN was the second most popular Internet service provider (after AOL LLC). The msn.com website itself is a news portal with videos, promotions and surveys.
8. Apple.com: start in 1997
The current look of the Apple site is fundamentally different from its earlier version with the alluring offer to get a free CD-ROM. However, even then the company showed its love for white. And the Apple eMate 300, advertised on the right side of the page, was at one time a popular PDA (from 1997 to 1998).
9. Twitter.com : start in 2006
Twitter was launched in March 2006 and, compared to its old version, has become almost unrecognizable. Currently, Twitter is one of the ten most visited resources in the world and is considered one of the most successful startups of all time in terms of market capitalization.
10. eBay.com (formerly known as AuctionWeb): start in 1995
Who would have thought that this gray, unremarkable site would turn into the largest online auction in the world? Its founder, programmer Pierre Omidyar, initially wanted to register the EchoBay.com domain name, but, as it turned out, it was already owned by one gold mining company, so it was decided to reduce the name to eBay.com.
11. LinkedIn.com: start in 2003
LinkedIn was created in 2003 by entrepreneur Reed Hoffman and was positioned as a social network for searching and establishing business contacts. In the United States alone, there are 93 million users of this network. From the very beginning, the site has a rather complex structure.
12. Amazon.com: start in 1995
Initially, Amazon sold only books on Amazon. Picking up a name for his project, Jeff Bezos looked through the dictionary and focused on the word “Amazon”, since the Amazon is exotic, unlike any other and the largest river in the world. That is what he wanted to make his store.
It is also interesting that earlier, in September 1994, Bezos acquired the domain Relentless.com and planned to call his brainchild the word Relentless (Rus. ruthless, tireless), but friends told him that such a name sounds a little sinister. The domain still belongs to Bezos - it is redirected to Amazon.com.
13. Instagram.com: start in 2010
Such a popular Instagram site began its existence under the name Burbn. The creators of the project, Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, at some point realized that their service began to strongly resemble Foursquare, and decided to make it more specialized, focusing on mobile photography. This is how Instagram came about. The name is a union of two expressions - " instant camera"And" telegram».
Since then, the project has been recognized as one of the most successful in the world. In 2012, Facebook bought Instagram for $ 1 billion.
All of the above resources today have a completely different design, and you can only find out how these sites looked before thanks to the preserved screenshots. But there are some sites that have been preserved in their original form! If one screenshot is not enough for you and you want to make a real surfing of sites in the style of the 90s, take a look at the list below.
90s Work Sites
At the time of publication of this article, all sites are working.
14. Space Jam: start in 1996
A funny piece of history: the Space Jam sub-site of the warnerbros.com domain, which has not changed since its launch in 1996. Here you can follow the links and feel the movement in time!
15. MillionDollarHomepage.com: start in 2005
This site brought its creator, 21-year-old student from the UK Alex Tew, earnings of $ 1,037,100. The main page has a size of 1000 × 1000 \u003d 1 million pixels. Each pixel sold for $ 1, and the minimum purchase size was a block of 10 × 10 pixels. At the disposal of the buyer was the area that he bought - he could place a picture on it and make a link from it.
The purpose of the site’s author was to sell all the pixels, therefore, the earnings should have been 1 million dollars. But Alex Tew earned a little more, because he put up the last thousand pixels at the eBay auction, earning $ 38,100 on the sale. The view of the site has been saved for history and is available for viewing.
16. DPGraph.com: start in 1997
Software site for mathematical and physical 3D visualization. It affects not only the theme, but also the appearance of the page - animated gifs of volumetric charts, painted in all colors of the rainbow, and design in the style of the 90s - what could be more psychedelic? ...
17. Aliweb.com: launch in 1993
ALIWEB (Archie Like Indexing for the WEB) is one of the first search engines in the world. Its launch took place in November 1993. Fortunately, after 23 years, we have the opportunity to admire such a rarity in an untouched form.
18. Taco.com: start in 1997
« We do not sell tacos. We do not cook tacos. In truth, some of us don’t even really like them”, - said on one of the pages of the site taco.com, owned by a company that offers various computer assistance. The name TACO comes from the abbreviation Technical Advisors Company. This site of the 90s still shines thanks to the sense of humor of the system administrators.
19. IFindIt.com: start in 1995
I Find It - A Huge Guide To Searching The Internet. Year of creation - 1995. The site posted advice: " Please set the screen resolution to 800 × 600 for optimal viewing.»…
Google, where were you in 1995? Apparently still playing with rattles.
20. Instanet.com: start in 1995
If HTML 2.0 pages (a version approved as standard on September 22, 1995) could be auctioned, instanet.com would now be worth millions. You just take a look at this source code:
Sometimes it can be useful to find out what the page was on the Internet before or to find out the contents of the deleted page.
Not a very outstanding case: the buyer purchased a smartphone through the online store, after receiving it was indignant that he had received a previously used device.
Amicably, the agreement did not work out. The director of the online store, claims that the buyer was warned by showing that the prefix is \u200b\u200bon the product page ref.
The buyer "as usual" does not remember such a warning on the page.
Ref - Refurbishment. In particular, referral in the field of information technology - in relation to a personal computer or other complex device, involves: buying up (or service) substandard devices - broken or not meeting modern technical requirements, followed by restoration after a breakdown (replacing or repairing parts of parts) or modernization (upgrade )
Wikipedia
The director shows the product description page, which clearly indicates ref:
Screenshot of product page from 05/25/2016
It seems that you can put an end to this, condemning the unlucky buyer who justified the proverb “kroilovo leads to the popalov”, who found “cheaper than in other stores”.
But we live under the control of “everything”, not only by authorized bodies, but also under the supervision of corporations.
And using Google’s cache, we can see how the product page looked like before.
And three months ago, the page looked like this:
Screenshot of product page as of 04/01/2016
Those. Indeed, the buyer purchased a new, not restored device (everything matches, from the page address to the product code in the seller’s database).
As a result, for the buyer everything ended well.
So, it seems like not very useful knowledge can help.
If you want to independently see a snapshot of a page or site from the Google cache, use this address, where after the colon, insert the address of the site or specific page that interests you:
webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q\u003dcache:site_site
Remember: snapshots of pages in the Google cache are also stored indefinitely.
Warning: Google may have disabled direct search for site snapshots.
In this case, try searching the Web Archive service.
In this case, create a query of the form: http://web.archive.org/web/*/site_site
For example, pictures of our site are available at: http://web.archive.org/web/*/site
Also, you can pay attention, in the results of the Google search, to the right of the site address there is a small triangle, by clicking on it, it will be offered to open a saved copy of the page.
By the way: in Kazakhstan, there was a somewhat similar case with a government agency that published a document on Internet control, which provoked discussion, after which the document was deleted by the site, but “Google remembers everything.”
If the problem is resolved, one way to say "Thank you" to the author is.
If the problem could not be resolved or additional questions appeared, you can ask them on our, in a special section.
On October 10, 2006, the official launch of the VKontakte social network took place. What happened to the social network over 11 years? Now remember!
The hat is very cute. “VKontakte” then appeared as “a closed directory of students and graduates of elite universities of Russia”. And one of the first blogs of Pavel Durov looked like this:
Also on the site the first competition is announced at the invitation of friends for very good prizes:
For 4 months, VKontakte has gained over 50,000 users, a good start. We also managed to find the screen of one of the first counters of registered users. A very nice figure on it, soon it will increase 10,000 times.
2007 year
year 2009
In 2009, VKontakte bought the Internet address vk.com, which is shorter and more convenient for promotion on the world market. The exact amount of the transaction is unknown, but it is clear that it was very large.
An interesting fact: in April 2009, twice as many people visited the VKontakte website as did Odnoklassniki, their eternal rival.
- The service "Ads" is launched.
2010 year. #DurovBack to the Wall
In February 2010, VKontakte registered the 60 millionth user, and already in November - the 100 millionth one. In October of the same year, an event occurred that caused a lot of noise: all the user pages were switched to microblogging mode, it was impossible to go back, and for many this caused outrage. People demanded to return the familiar wall.
- The wall turns into a microblog.
- Added Like button.
- The numeric id can be replaced with a "beautiful address".
It looked like a wall to the microblogging
2011.
At the beginning of 2011, the VKontakte website closed free registration in order to complicate the creation of fictitious users used for promotion and distribution of advertisements. It was possible to register only at the invitation that one of the users could send (if he was given such an opportunity). Around the same time, privacy settings changed: it became impossible to open your recordings on the wall only for a certain circle of people, they became publicly available.
Free registration was reopened in July 2011.
- Mobile applications for iPhone and Android are launched.
- Added the ability to chat with multiple participants.
- Hashtags are being introduced.
- Celebrity pages are starting to verify.
The first version of mobile applications looked like this:
IPhone version
Android version
year 2012. Relocation
In 2012, the VKontakte website finally moved to the VK domain name.
year 2013
In April 2013, it became known that the United Capital Partners investment fund, managed by Ilya Shcherbovich (close to the Kremlin as many believe), bought back a 48% stake in VKontakte from Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev. They did not have the right to sell shares without first offering them to other VKontakte shareholders, including Pavel Durov, but they circumvented this limitation by selling not the shares, but the Cypriot companies to which they belonged. Pavel Durov said that this scheme "gives away fraud." Relations between him and the new shareholder were aggravated from time to time and went public. Rumor has it that the UCP fund wants to remove Durov from his post as CEO.
At the same time, Durov devoted time to his new project - the Telegram mobile messenger (a communication application). At the UCP, this caused discontent.
In the summer, before the entry into force of the "anti-piracy" law, VKontakte removed a lot of music downloaded illegally there.
In 2013, according to Pavel Durov, the number of daily VKontakte users grew by 14 million, reaching 56 million, while the audience of Odnoklassniki, the closest competitor, was twice as slow.
year 2014
2016 year.
- The news feed becomes “smart,” adjusting to the interests of a particular user.
- Launch of cashless money transfers.
- There is an opportunity to conduct game broadcasts (streams).
- The ability to send voice messages is being introduced.
- VK is completely redesigning the full version of the site.
Design VK after updating in 2016
2017 year
- VK there is an opportunity to record "Stories".
- There is a global update of mobile applications VK.
- Limit listening to music in the background. Implementation of a paid monthly subscription.
Custom VK pages, including your personal profile, often change under the influence of various factors. In this regard, the topic of viewing the early appearance of the page becomes relevant, and for this it is necessary to use third-party tools.
First of all, it should be noted that viewing an early copy of a page, whether it is an existing or already deleted user account, is possible only when the privacy settings do not limit the operation of search engines. Otherwise, third-party sites, including search engines themselves, cannot cache data for further demonstration.
Method 1: Google Search
The most famous search engines, having access to certain VKontakte pages, are able to save a copy of the questionnaire in their database. At the same time, the life of the last copy is very limited, up to the moment of re-scanning the profile.
Note: We will only be affected by Google search, but similar web services require the same actions.
- Use one of our instructions to find the right user on Google.
- Among the presented results, find the one you need and click on the icon with the image of the arrow located under the main link.
- From the drop-down list, select Saved Copy.
- After that, you will be redirected to the person’s page, which looks in full accordance with the last scan.
Even if VKontakte has active authorization in the browser, when viewing a saved copy, you will be an anonymous user. In case of an authorization attempt, you will encounter an error or the system will automatically redirect you to the original site.
You can view only the information that is loaded with the page. That is, for example, you will not be able to see subscribers or photos, including due to the lack of the possibility of authorization.
Using this method is impractical in cases where it is necessary to find a saved copy of the page of a very popular user. This is due to the fact that such accounts are often visited by third parties and therefore are much more actively updated by search engines.
Method 2: Internet Archive
Unlike search engines, a web archive does not place requirements on a user page and its settings. However, not all pages are saved on this resource, but only those that were manually added to the database.
- After opening the resource using the link above, in the main text field, paste the full URL of the page, a copy of which you need to see.
- In the event of a successful search, you will be presented with a timeline with all copies stored in chronological order.
Note: The less popular the profile owner, the lower the number of copies found.
- Switch to the desired time zone by clicking on the corresponding year.
- Using the calendar, find the date you are interested in and hover over it. In this case, only numbers highlighted in a certain color are clickable.
- From the list "Snapshot" select the desired time by clicking on the link with it.
- Now you will be presented with a user page, but only in English.
You can view only the information that was not hidden by the privacy settings at the time of its archiving. Any buttons and other features of the site will be unavailable.
The main negative factor of the method is that any information on the page, with the exception of manually entered data, is presented in English. You can avoid this problem by resorting to the next service.
Method 3: Web Archive
This site is a less popular analogue of the previous resource, but it copes with its task more than well. In addition, you can always use this web archive if the previously reviewed site was temporarily unavailable for any reason.
- Having opened the main page of the site, fill in the main search line with a link to the profile and click "To find".
- After that, a field will appear under the search form "Results"where all found copies of the page will be presented.
- In the list "Other dates" select the column with the desired year and click on the name of the month.
- Using the calendar, click on one of the numbers found.
- Upon completion of the download, you will be presented with a user profile corresponding to the selected date.
- As in the previous method, all the features of the site, except for direct viewing of information, will be blocked. However, this time the contents are fully translated into Russian.
Note: There are many similar services on the network, adapted for different languages.
You can also resort to another article on our website that talks about the possibility view deleted pages . We are completing this method and article, since the material presented is more than enough to view the earlier version of the VK page.
Devices
