My Web Habits 10 Years Ago

I spend a lot of time surfing the web these days. But that’s nothing new. Ever since I got my first computer with internet access in 1999, I have been wandering around the web like a total idiot. While today I spend much of my time on YouTube, Twitter, Forums and the countless blogs I read, ten years ago the web was a totally different place and the websites I visited daily were very different from the ones I frequent today.

New Grounds

Remember New Grounds? I used to spend my days playing flash games and watching flash cartoons at New Grounds. Guess what? NG is still a thriving community as awesome as it ever was. The only difference is that today it’s a kick-ass web-standardized platform that just fucking rocks. Ten Kudos to the founders for keeping it alive and with the same mission. NewGrounds.com

Rotten.com

Aw, man, I’m kinda freaked out as I type this. I used to visit Rotten.com, a macabre photo gallery of deaths and freak accidents. It was cool to see limbs destroyed by machinery and people crushed by trucks. I was a sick 16-year-old, I know! But Rotten.com is still active but unchanged. Unlike New Grounds, it’s still a static website with no use of or care for modern web technology or standards. I guess that sets them apart from the crowd, right? Retarded. Rotten.com

College Humor

I don’t remember much time spent on CollegeHumor.com but I guess it deserves a place here because they, too have kept the website updated and it’s now run on some kind of blog-like CMS like TypePad or WordPress or maybe some custom-made CMS. Whatever still sucks as it ever did. Mildly entertaining. CollegeHumor.com

SpikyThing.com

Few will remember Spiky Thing since it was the professional portfolio for Liam O’ Donnell, a London-based Flash and Web Developer. He has had dozens of free Flash games available on his website for a decade. I remember using proxies in High School to bypass the blocked website. I spent hours in class playing Bug Hunt and other addictive games of his. Awesome. As he calls it “Flash goodness.” SpikyThing.com

LiveJournal

Whoever says they never had a LiveJournal account back in the beginning of the decade is out-right lying! It was the Facebook of the late-90s and early-21st century and the predecessor to modern-day blogs. I had many LJ accounts, including dyingtobekilled and others I can’t remember. I also had other accounts in other Journal sites like DeathJournal, Blurty, GreatestJournal and other LJ clones. I got pretty emo back then so, if I ever find those journals, I’ll be sure to make them private o.O LiveJournal.com \ DeadJournal.com \ Blurty.com \ GreatestJournal.com (deceased)

Homestead.com

Ahh, I bet that brings back memories for some of you. Do you remember NewsWithBalls? NWB was a website I created at Homestead.com. But, wait, there’s more… NWB wasn’t just a website I created, it was the first website I created. Ever. I used to write news about bands like KoRn, RHCP, SlipKnot, and others. That was later my first domain name (newswithballs.com). You can read more about NWB on the article All My Domain Names Are Belong to Me. My old website and account were deleted when Homestead switched focus to a more “serious” web host. I was never able to recover any of my articles or graphics :( that makes me really sad. Homestead.com

eBaums World

Aha! I bet you didn’t think eBaum had been around that long! Well, it used to be a crazy little site with big ideas that started getting popular on forums and eventually hit it big with funny videos and sound boards. It was awesome then as it is today. eBaumsWorld.com

There Is Much More…

That’s a small list. It has been ten years and my memory is fading. If you remember us visiting other websites, please let me know in the comments below. Unless it was one of those porn sites. I remember those clearly but omitted them for obvious reasons… I’m just kidding, of course (the wife might be reading this).