Predicting the Internet in 1995

Rexdude writes "Here is a list of predictions from 'The Internet' magazine at the end of 1994. It highlights the major changes and events on the net as it was back then (20 million users only, for starters). Seems a throwback to a relatively more innocent time, when the unwashed masses had not taken over the net as much as today. And look at the reverence accorded to long dead protocols like Gopher!"

Comments

Missed a few.

[Tackhead]

> I like how the only thing that's even remotely relevant today is that Nethack is still around and still entertaining.

I dunno. Kenny Greenberg's comments seemed to hit pretty hard:

Worst:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assist ance_for_Law_Enforcement_Act
• The Clipper Chip FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard)
• Obscenity prosecutions of BBSs
• Media hysteria about e-mail stalking and the threat to children on the Internet

Prediction:

• There will be a concerted effort by the U.S. Congress to regulate content on the Internet.

And as a reminder for those of you who got your hopes up in November of 2006 -- you might want to look at who was President in 1994. Hint: His last name wasn't "Bush".

Re:WWW

[slim]

Under the list Worst in Net Entertainment:

The organization of the World-Wide Web. I love the Web, but finding something specific on it is a nightmare. And because the Web is growing by leaps and bounds, I just don't see things getting easier anytime soon.

How little they knew ...

None of them predict search engines - because they were a genuine and unexpected innovation. I remember using the Web at around that time - before Yahoo attempted to create a directory, and Altavista produced their webspider-driven search engine. O'Reilly had a small directory of useful sites, but other than that the only way to find pages was by surfing from link to link, or by being given a URL out-of-band.

I believe webspiders, and search engines built around data they collected, were the killer app that made the Web truly useful.