Out of all the "eras" of the Internet, which one was your favorite?

I'm sure we'll get a varied bunch of responses here.

2006-2011. Basically, whenever blogs were popular. I loved blogs!

2006/2007 in particular though, since that's when MSN was still popular.

I'm glad Discord and Slack are popular nowadays, as well as WhatsApp and Telegram, which are sort of similar to MSN except on mobile. I also really like my Chromecast (and tomorrow, hopefully, my Apple TV!) and other Internet connected home devices, they made my life a lot easier. I don't like the memes and social media focus of the Internet at the moment (and I hate sites like Reddit and 9gag etc., which I make an effort to avoid, but that's harder than it sounds), so I can't say 2012-2017 is my favourite. It has its good and bad.

The classic era. Like a Coke bottle, just classic!  8)

Note that the names and year spans of the eras aren't mine, I stole them from Infinity. :P I think they sum up the Net's evolution pretty well, though.

2008, when I saw this fanmade video that is now taken down by either YouTube or the user.

I also wished I was old enough to be on MySpace, but I had a Tumblr account instead for all my fandom and emo stuff.

There was Yahoo! Avatars before that got taken down, and, well, to me, either it's because of my change in activities, but the web felt more like a toy to me back before 2013.

Mine are 1995-2006 I guess.............

After that it really started to get too intrusive,too many ads,etc............ More agressive,etc...........

Good question. This is actually tough because I do love things the way they are now. Even though I don't use social media very much, YouTube, and the hours upon hours of classic retro videos on it, are amazing, especially for a nostalgic kind of guy like me.

But there's just something about the late '90s and early '00s period that I love. Probably mostly nostalgia, but the crappy old websites from back then make me fondly remember those early days of going online for the first time.

I like 2000-2006 for the mystery. As what machine he@d pointed out, I also like the charming and innocent look of crappy old websites that carry that immensity.

The on coming years are just G.O.A.T's for specific websites.

I also liked the dot com bubble era. I know it's primitive, compared to today, but the newness and freshness of the 'era' was fun.

1995-2000 era before Google took over YouTube.

I'm gonna say that 2007-2009 were my favorite years on the Internet. It was basically around the time where I watched YouTube videos so much, along with playing so much Flash games at the time.

My favorite era of the Internet was roughly 2001 through 2006.  The era was still predominantly Web 1.0 but there were signs of Web 2.0 emerging.  Everything was still desktop based and dial-up was still a thing.  Nothing since has matched the excitement of upgrading from dial-up to broadband for the first time.  That was like having an entirely new world at your fingertips.

One thing I dislike about today's Internet is how computers play second fiddle to tablets and smartphones.  Some people like myself still prefer computers.  I miss the days when most sites had a full and a mobile version instead of just assuming everyone is using mobile.

Definitely the Classic Era, though the Independent Media Era isn't terribly far behind because I love classic YouTube and social media wasn't terrible yet, and at least Internet forums still had some presence over comment sections galore.

1995-2000 era before Google took over YouTube.


I think you meant to say Yahoo!, right?

Late 1990s/early 2000s search portals were something else. :D

Must admit though, I've debated with myself over whether or not the Classic Era cutoff is accurate. From what I remember, the Internet of 2007-2008 was an advancement from the classic era, but didn't feel terribly divorced from it yet. Classic memes like All Your Base and Leeroy Jenkins still coexisted alongside newer memes like Rick Roll and Chocolate Rain, Youtube was still focused on "homemade" videos like they were in 2005-2006, and online Flash games and sites such as Newgrounds still maintained a decent enough presence. True, iPhones and Windows Vista came out at the time but nobody used them; it was all about Windows movie maker, Winxp, let the bodies hit the floor, unregistered hypercam, etc.

If anything 2009/2010 is when I noticed the whole glossy modern social media Internet begin to take hold. Twitter became well known after Michael Jackson died, Facebook overtook Myspace in popularity, and YouTube changed their layout from stars to likes.

I think you meant to say Yahoo!, right?

Late 1990s/early 2000s search portals were something else. :D


Oh Yeah, I meant Yahoo! I also miss dial-up a little bit back in the days when you were on the computer and someone had to use the phone and they told you to get off so you'd come back to it later.  ;D

Another fan of the Classic Era here. I started using the internet during this era and it was probably the most simplistic from what I remember.

2007/2008 is when I first started using the internet so I'd have to go with the 2007 - 2013 Independent Media Era

The Erotica/Sex book era. Oops. We're not talking about Madonna, my bad.  :P

Another fan of the Classic Era here. I started using the internet during this era and it was probably the most simplistic from what I remember.

I would expect you to associate with the Indie Media Era more, since those were your teen years.

I would expect you to associate with the Indie Media Era more, since those were your teen years.


Well my childhood years were mainly the 2001-2006 era (heck it even correlates well with my Core Childhood from ages 5-10). But your right I do have a bit of a soft spot for the 2007-2013 era, especially the 2007-2009 half of it. During those years was when I started to use the internet much more regularly then I did in the early-mid 2000's. Part of it was that I was entering my teens so I was getting involved in the up in coming trends of things like YouTube, FaceBook, Forums, etc. Also the fact that Web 2.0 really started to become a major force by the Late 2000's.

But your right I do have a bit of a soft spot for the 2007-2013 era, especially the 2007-2009 half of it. During those years was when I started to use the internet much more regularly then I did in the early-mid 2000's. Part of it was that I was entering my teens so I was getting involved in the up in coming trends of things like YouTube, FaceBook, Forums, etc. Also the fact that Web 2.0 really started to become a major force by the Late 2000's.

As I've said before, I always felt like 2007-2008, while advancing from the Classic Era, felt like a natural continuation of that era. You still had classic era memes like Star Wars Kid and Numa Numa coexisting with the newer ones like Rickroll, and videos still contained mid 2000s elements like Unregistered Hypercam, Windows XP, Windows Movie Maker, etc. because the late 2000s hardware/software was clunky and too expensive at the time. Particularly the infamous Windows Vista.

Around 2009 is when I feel there was a hard cutoff due to YouTube changing from stars to likes, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter firmly becoming household names, glossy web design becoming the "in" thing, etc. That was when the Independent Media Era fully separated itself from its ancestor, imo.

As I've said before, I always felt like 2007-2008, while advancing from the Classic Era, felt like a natural continuation of that era. You still had classic era memes like Star Wars Kid and Numa Numa coexisting with the newer ones like Rickroll, and videos still contained mid 2000s elements like Unregistered Hypercam, Windows XP, Windows Movie Maker, etc. because the late 2000s hardware/software was clunky and too expensive at the time. Particularly the infamous Windows Vista.

Around 2009 is when I feel there was a hard cutoff due to YouTube changing from stars to likes, Facebook and Twtitter becoming household names, glossy web design becoming the "in" thing, etc. That was when the Independent Media Era fully separated itself from its ancestor, imo.


Good points! Maybe if we divide it further it would probably be:

2001-2004: Classic/Web 1.0 Era (dial up, AOL Chatrooms, Early Xbox Live, Yahoolagins)

2005-2008: Classic/Web 2.0 Era (2G, DSL/Broadband, early wifi, Xbox Live/PSN, Myspace, MSN, classic YouTube)

2009-2013: Facebook Era (3G, Broadband, Wifi, Online Gaming standard, emergence of smartphones, Facebook, Twitter)

2014-Present: Modern Era (4GLTE, Fiberoptics, debate on Net Neutrality, Mobile social apps like Twitter, Instagram, & Snapchat, 4K/60 FPS, Online streaming)

Good points! Maybe if we divide it further it would probably be:

2001-2004: Classic/Web 1.0 Era (dial up, AOL Chatrooms, Early Xbox Live, Yahoolagins)

2005-2008: Classic/Web 2.0 Era (2G, DSL/Broadband, early wifi, Xbox Live/PSN, Myspace, MSN, classic YouTube)

2009-2013: Facebook Era (3G, Broadband, Wifi, Online Gaming standard, emergence of smartphones, Facebook, Twitter)

2014-Present: Modern Era (4GLTE, Fiberoptics, debate on Net Neutrality, Mobile social apps like Twitter, Instagram, & Snapchat, 4K/60 FPS, Online streaming)

Good breakdown but I'm not sure if 2005-2008 can fully considered dsl/broadband. Dial up was still holding steady in 2005-early 2006 but killed itself in summer 2006, according to the AOL Wikipedia page.

I'm more 1998-2003 for me, basically the later part of the Bubble and the first half of the "Classic" era. 1995-97 was pretty much Arial/Times New Roman-designed sites and it was basically an advanced Prodigy from the earlier '90s, just more user friendly and with a wider variety of content, yet slow and of course a time limit per month. On the other end, 2004-2006 feels quite different to me than the early '00s since that was when Myspace, wikis, video, and digital download culture really took off, and many sites started to have a more "polished" feel compared to the earlier '00s, yet still before many got their "mobile" look, and blogs were already popular in 2004-06. Of course, this site is still a product of the Bubble/early Classic era, which is why I still enjoy it. There was truly this "the world is going to become much smarter and together" feeling of optimism that we take for granted these days. Plus, it was still more or less a tool than a way of life like it is now, where it has surpassed the TV in many instances. It also maybe because I was in high school during these years and remember gradually getting improved quality, from 28.8K, to 56K, to finally broadband, and NetZero in 1999 ended the time limit of the AOL/trial era outside of school for me. Still, its a nice trip down memory lane when I visit archive.org to see what the true "Classic Age" was like.

Good breakdown but I'm not sure if 2005-2008 can fully considered dsl/broadband. Dial up was still holding steady in 2005-early 2006 but killed itself in summer 2006, according to the AOL Wikipedia page.


Yeah there were a lot of dial-up stragglers in the mid '00s.  I did a lot of computer repair back then and a lot of people, especially older people, still used dial-up.  It wasn't until around 2008 that it started to completely disappear.

I also wouldn't separate the "Facebook Era" from the Web 2.0 era.  The modern era of course is the current Internet which is mobile first and that began in 2013.

I don't actually have a favorite because I enjoyed the Dot Com Bubble Era (I had the internet before this time frame ended), Classic Era and even the Independent Media Era.

Well my childhood years were mainly the 2001-2006 era (heck it even correlates well with my Core Childhood from ages 5-10). But your right I do have a bit of a soft spot for the 2007-2013 era, especially the 2007-2009 half of it. During those years was when I started to use the internet much more regularly then I did in the early-mid 2000's. Part of it was that I was entering my teens so I was getting involved in the up in coming trends of things like YouTube, FaceBook, Forums, etc. Also the fact that Web 2.0 really started to become a major force by the Late 2000's.


My childhood years were from 1985-1990

My childhood years were from 1985-1990


When did you get Internet access at home?

To define things a little more broadly, I would say that my favorite era was roughly 1998 until about 2004. 1998 being because that was when I finally went online for the first time, and 2004 because I feel like that was the last year before the Web 2.0 era really started to gain stream with the rise of MySpace, YouTube and all of that, which started sometime during 2005.

As I said, that's not a knock against today's online experience. YouTube is an awesome site that I literally spend hours watching videos on every day. There is just something so nostalgic about late '90s and early '00s websites, though.

My childhood era of the Web (not the Internet...common misconception) was from 2005-2011. That's the era of the Web that I have the most nostalgia for.

However, I do like the Dot Com Bubble era (1995-2000) the best because of the relative novelty of the Web at that time. There are still a few websites from that time that are up and running and haven't been changed at all since then. I didn't get to experience the Web during that time so using the websites from then that are still running is pretty much time traveling. It's so cool :D.

When did you get Internet access at home?


I think it was in 1995 when My Father got Windows 95, 22 years ago.

I'm gonna go with 2007-2013, I hardly used the internet before 2006

2006. I had a Myspace, a Facebook, and I saw YouTube for the first time- A Mighty Morphin Power Ranger clip!

Must admit though, I've debated with myself over whether or not the Classic Era cutoff is accurate. From what I remember, the Internet of 2007-2008 was an advancement from the classic era, but didn't feel terribly divorced from it yet. Classic memes like All Your Base and Leeroy Jenkins still coexisted alongside newer memes like Rick Roll and Chocolate Rain, Youtube was still focused on "homemade" videos like they were in 2005-2006, and online Flash games and sites such as Newgrounds still maintained a decent enough presence. True, iPhones and Windows Vista came out at the time but nobody used them; it was all about Windows movie maker, Winxp, let the bodies hit the floor, unregistered hypercam, etc.


This is something that I agree with. YouTube back in 2005-2008 (or 2005-mid 2009 imo) were the greatest years for the site. It was when people actually controlled the site with no Google+, no stupid ads, no horrendous recommendations, no videos that had to deal with Spiderman or Elsa being pregnant, no PewDiePie, Markiplier, or any cringy gamer, and no kids that annoyed the site with Minecraft videos and other crap.

Classic era: nothing beats Toonami.com!
"Haaaahahahahahahahaaa! You'll NEVER defeat us!"

1995-2000

Can I tick all of them?

Sure ya can buddy :)