# What was YOUR first web experience? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 26, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138 "2011-08-26T04:29:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/41 "2011-08-27T01:09:48Z")
C’mon, nobody else started with **Prodigy**? I remember you were allowed 30 (?) emails a month; once you go over that, they charged 10 cents each. And you were very limited as to how much text you could write; there were just four pages max available, and the pages were small and the font was huge. I also dabbled in Genie, Delphi, and of course AOL and Compuserve. ETA: [Prodigy Login screen](http://24.media.tumblr.com/g10jlUxnUpxvyy6hWywjQ0NJo1_500.jpg) mmm ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/42 "2011-08-27T01:31:55Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > C’mon, nobody else started with **Prodigy**? I used Prodigy, but it didn’t connect to the web, so I didn’t mention it in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/43 "2011-08-27T03:43:50Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:37, topic:594138”] - NOTE: The Internet is not the Web. The OP specifically asked about the first website you visited…\* [/QUOTE] Yeah, but the OP isn’t picking nits – he’s too busy being captivated by all these great stories (and tempted to bow before his laptop, “I’m not worrrrthy…”). Congrats on being adventurers, and having all these experiences! ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/44 "2011-08-27T06:17:41Z")
Web, would have been early versions of Mosaic at work. We had email and FTP and Usenet but the web just looked cool. There wasn’t that many websites but new ones were showing up every day. Aside from slient and vendor sites, I distinctly remember hitting up imdb and Yahoo in the early days. ---
**Author:** ![Student\_Driver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@Student\_Driver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Student_Driver)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/45 "2011-08-27T08:14:02Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Not sure what counts as internet, web, or whatever, so I’ll just share my “online” experiences. The confusion in answers in this thread is also what led me to describe my various kinds of online experiences (though categorized properly; I do know the difference between WWW and gopher, f’r instance). And, IMO, it’s entertaining to see the various steps in a person’s history, to see how the experience grew over the years. I found it interesting to see your online history pre-WWW… ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/46 "2011-08-27T08:42:14Z")
I can’t remember the specifics, it’s a bit of a blur. I had a friend who had a Bulletin Board (BBS) of his own and he did this for a couple of years before I was aware of the Internet. Somewhere along the line there was a slow transition into my seeing parts of it, this was about 1994 or 95 I think. What confuses me about the specifics is that by 1997 I was full-time employed as a website designer, so I must have been online myself for at least a year to 18 months before that, and that would’ve been after a year of stealing scraps of internet time from the aforementioned friend, and my family. I do remember seeing an animated gif for the first time, and discovering extremely graphic online porn of a kind I had never seen before. Sold! ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/47 "2011-08-27T12:39:06Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:42, topic:594138”] I used Prodigy, but it didn’t connect to the web, so I didn’t mention it in this thread. [/QUOTE] Well, now you have. So you’re as contemptible as I. More so, even. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/48 "2011-08-27T13:05:33Z")
I found my way into a chat room. Heaven knows how- and then I didn’t know how to get out. And became a host for MSN. There were some strange people hosting. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/49 "2011-08-27T15:32:52Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Well, now you have. > > So you’re as contemptible as I. > > More so, even. I also used AOL, CompuServe, the Well (anyone else remember the Well?), and a multitude of various BBS’s. I think I used Prodigy for all of a month. Couldn’t stand it. But I’m still contemptible. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/50 "2011-08-27T15:43:32Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:49, topic:594138”] I also used AOL, CompuServe, the Well (anyone else remember the Well?), and a multitude of various BBS’s. I think I used Prodigy for all of a month. Couldn’t stand it. But I’m still contemptible. 😉 [/QUOTE] I thought Prodigy was way cool, but then, it’s all I knew. I was amazed that I could instantly (well, sorta instantly) see the current weather conditions. Of course, I coulda stuck my head out the door and gathered that info as well. cmm (contemptible mr. mustard) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/51 "2011-08-27T19:06:25Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:49, topic:594138”] I also used AOL, CompuServe, the Well (anyone else remember the Well?), and a multitude of various BBS’s. [/QUOTE] At home, I was on CompuServe. Anyone remember [TapCIS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TapCIS)? ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/52 "2011-08-28T14:23:59Z")
I remember exactly what I searched for the first time I was in front of my brother’s computer, and I believe that was around 1996. He was showing me how you could look for anything in the world by going to a search engine and typing it in. I think it was Alta Vista? The first word that came to my mind was “cheese”. There were dozens of websites about cheese! DOZENS! Now Google will give me 337 _million_ hits for cheese. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/53 "2011-08-28T15:45:04Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > At home, I was on CompuServe. Anyone remember [TapCIS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TapCIS)? TapCIS was awesome. A great way to minimize connect time! ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/54 "2011-08-29T05:06:46Z")
Hrm…I remember BBSing no problem, but can’t recall the first web browser experience. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/55 "2011-08-29T05:07:48Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > I remember exactly what I searched for the first time I was in front of my brother’s computer, and I believe that was around 1996. He was showing me how you could look for anything in the world by going to a search engine and typing it in. I think it was Alta Vista? The first word that came to my mind was “cheese”. There were dozens of websites about cheese! DOZENS! > > Now Google will give me 337 _million_ hits for cheese. Dogpile \> Alta Vista 4 lyfe! ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/56 "2011-08-29T06:45:26Z")
lol, hard to say what the first actual internet web browsing was, or rather when, I should say. From about 90 to 95, there was quite a number of hybrid experiences. The big three being AOL,C-Serve and Genie. Up here in Canada, you had to be careful with some of those access numbers for the boards, bell canada really was not all that sympathetic to a couple of thousand dollar phone bills. I do remember the browser wars, microsoft getting all freaked out when talk was about netscape being the operating system. What I am surprised at , given the amount of dopers, is so far no one has chimed in with being part of the WELL. Declan ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/57 "2011-08-29T08:21:21Z")
I had used Prodigy and fiddled around with BBSs via modem as a teen in the late 80s. From 1989 at Cal Berkeley, I practically lived in the basement of the OCF (open computing facility) for the next 5 years. I spent hours and hours on newsgroups and mailing lists. I ran a popular weekly trivia contact on rec.arts.trivia and also ran a daily MLB standings mailing list. My first WWW encounter was in 1995 just before I came to Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Jaguars](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaguars/32/5879_2.png) [@Jaguars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaguars)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/58 "2011-08-29T11:44:05Z")
My first time on any net was about 1996 or so. I went over to a relative’s place and got to try it on their computer. I had read about these ‘search engines’ somewhere and searched ‘jokes’ in yahoo and altavista. I remember one of the first hits was a site with pictures of an ‘alien’ lifeform in the background of pictures from a mars expedition that was in the news at the time. (The ‘alien’ was an alsatian. I figured someone had done a Real life cut and paste and black and white photocopied it.) I know, still wet behind the ears, huh? ---
**Author:** ![downtown1441](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6bbea6/32.png) [@downtown1441](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/downtown1441)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/59 "2011-08-29T12:00:01Z")
Uh… well, I was in middle school and my parents weren’t home, I’d heard some talk at school about some of the wonders available online so I went down into my family’s dimly lit basement… and was blown to found out my Dad had already installed child-safe blocks on the intertubes. So upsetting. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2011, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138/60 "2011-08-29T14:25:44Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:49, topic:594138”] I also used AOL, CompuServe, the Well (anyone else remember the Well?), and a multitude of various BBS’s. I think I used Prodigy for all of a month. Couldn’t stand it. [/QUOTE] > [@Declan](#): > > What I am surprised at , given the amount of dopers, is so far no one has chimed in with being part of the WELL. 😃 I was one of the latecomers to the Well (“Whole Earth ’Lectronic Link,” for those not familiar with it) – I didn’t join until 1995 or so. I wrote about it in my Internet book in 1996. There’s nothing quite like the Well anymore. The Dope may be the closest thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-first-web-experience/594138.md?page=4)