Was the web an easier place to be in Y2K

[Lorfarius]

For me the next big internet thing was being able to use it properly on a mobile (iPhone for me). Up until 2 years ago I'd wander into shops, look and stuff and think its probably too dear, might just look it up in Amazon. Then all of a sudden I had this mini laptop in my pocket which could connect to the net just about anywhere. I was off sending emails on the go, checking prices. Don't like the price in Game? Simply check it on the Amazon store and hit the order button. So much freedom! Felt just like getting on the net all those years ago.

[MattyC64c]

For me the next big internet thing was being able to use it properly on a mobile (iPhone for me). Up until 2 years ago I'd wander into shops, look and stuff and think its probably too dear, might just look it up in Amazon. Then all of a sudden I had this mini laptop in my pocket which could connect to the net just about anywhere

I did that very same thing on Friday. I was in an HMV and saw some Blu-rays. HMV are trying to sell the BD Star Wars collection (all six films) for £100, yeah, £100, insane! I took out my Andriod phone with it's 1GHz processor and checked out Play.com. There I found the same thing for £49.

Couldn't do that back in the 90's.

[Antiriad2097]

HMV are trying to sell the BD Star Wars collection (all six films) for £100, yeah, £100, insane! I took out my Andriod phone with it's 1GHz processor and checked out Play.com. There I found the same thing for £49.

£100 is significantly more than it cost to pre-order or buy on release!

[MattyC64c]

I've just checked HMV, and it's £100 quid on there too!
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDet ... sku=220979

Amazon on the other hand £49.99
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Wars-Compl ... 115&sr=8-1

[samhain81]

.

Couldn't do that back in the 90's.

But this is HMV were talking about. Walked in the other day as still saw kameo on 360 being sold for £25

[greenberet79]

I remember first using the web at uni - either 1997 or 1998. I had no idea what I was doing! It was all shrouded in mystery - for better and worse.

The internet is much better now. It's like comparing a Penny Farthing to a Jumbo Jet.

[MattyC64c]

Trolling seems to be a bit of a problem, and can be particularly bad on social networking sites. That's just kids for you though. I don't feed the trolls. Back in the early days only a select few had access to the net, now that's all changed.

[TwoHeadedBoy]

A lot of "taking it for granted" happend with it these days. It's amazing and stuff, but it all adds up to constant accumulation! Way back when, we'd spend all evening downloading one song off Kazaa or Limewire, now it's whole discographies in less than half an hour, not to mention building up my own personal TV station by using YouTube Downloader and making up playlists full of things to press "Shuffle play" on.

They don't have chatrooms anymore, do they? Facebook killed them, probably. Or kiddie-fiddlers, one of those two.

[greenberet79]

Trolling seems to be a bit of a problem, and can be particularly bad on social networking sites. That's just kids for you though. I don't feed the trolls. Back in the early days only a select few had access to the net, now that's all changed.

Yep - the web has revealed that there are a lot of demented people out there. A lot of angry, demented people with very strong views. It's all very weird.

[Megamixer]

A lot of "taking it for granted" happend with it these days. It's amazing and stuff, but it all adds up to constant accumulation!

It's kinda like games being so cheap to pick up these days; it dilutes everything and devalues stuff when you have access to more content than you'll ever need in a crazily short amount of time.

[killbot]

It's like videogames - of course we all like the newer, slicker, flashier version but the slightly ungainly, slow, ugly, homemade feel of the old stuff is still interesting from a historical perspective. I find the internet now to be a scarier place - back in the day we didn't feel the need to look out for internet scams, paedophile rings, trolls or horrible viruses. I'm sure all those things were there, but they were less common and therefore easier to overlook. That said, the content is far better now, as is the speed. In '95 when we first went online in our house I ran out of websites I was interested in looking at after about two days. No Youtube, Wikipedia, IGN or any of the other sites which sap so much of my leisure time now. It was definitely less corporate though - there was a sweet charm about a place where everyone just seemed to want to share low-quality JPEGs of their cats, or their expertise on the history of various train routes through gaudy HTML sites that didn't carry enormous banner ads for McDonalds.

So yeah, I prefer it today but I definitely have an affection for the way it used to be.

[samhain81]

It's like videogames - of course we all like the newer, slicker, flashier version but the slightly ungainly, slow, ugly, homemade feel of the old stuff is still interesting from a historical perspective. I find the internet now to be a scarier place - back in the day we didn't feel the need to look out for internet scams, paedophile rings, trolls or horrible viruses. I'm sure all those things were there, but they were less common and therefore easier to overlook. That said, the content is far better now, as is the speed. In '95 when we first went online in our house I ran out of websites I was interested in looking at after about two days. No Youtube, Wikipedia, IGN or any of the other sites which sap so much of my leisure time now. It was definitely less corporate though - there was a sweet charm about a place where everyone just seemed to want to share low-quality JPEGs of their cats, or their expertise on the history of various train routes through gaudy HTML sites that didn't carry enormous banner ads for McDonalds.

So yeah, I prefer it today but I definitely have an affection for the way it used to be.

Pretty much this.

Although, I will always prefer online gaming in the early years of 2000 with the likes of Counterstrike, Quake 3 Arena, and Star Trek Elite Force being at the pinnacle of gaming youth

[sicpuppy]

I do miss the dial up tone.

I dont miss all the failed connections, barely get on it some of the time.

[Megamixer]

I do miss the dial up tone.

Just for you (and me too cuz I love that sound also):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsNaR6FRuO0

[The Beans]

Trolling seems to be a bit of a problem, and can be particularly bad on social networking sites. That's just kids for you though. I don't feed the trolls. Back in the early days only a select few had access to the net, now that's all changed.

Yep - the web has revealed that there are a lot of demented people out there. A lot of angry, demented people with very strong views. It's all very weird.

I think there's even more people out there who really don't have anything to say at all but go ahead and say it anyway.
We were getting a hint of this back in 2000. Remember the homepage? Everybody had one. Nearly all of them were unintentional tributes to dullness. It was a sign of things to come. Nowadays it's blogs and facebook pages and uninformed commentary on anything and everything.
Somebody once said that the average person is quite stupid, and that we must realise 50% of people are even more stupid than that. As more and more people join the online community and expose their intelligence to the world at large I do think this observation is being brought into stark relief.