FLASHBACK: This Was The Internet In 1995

Nicholas Carlson
This is CompuServe.

Back in 1995, a public television show called the Computer Chronicles made an episode about an emerging technology: “The Net.”

We found the video after venture capitalist MG Siegler embedded it on his blog.

It’s pretty insane how far things have come in the last 20 years.

Our first guide is NYT tech reporter John Markoff

He says his favourite use of the Internet is email. Here's a message he got from an executive named Steve Jobs

This is what a search result page looks like. Look! Files from Germany, Virginia and California!

It's all really cool. But Stewart wants to know: what are the risks of using the Net?

Markoff says you shouldn't put your password on the Net, or your credit card.

This is what their performance looked like.

This is what the Rolling Stone's webpage looked like back then.

Back to Stewart! He wants to introduce us to someone.

This is Charla Beaverson, a product manager for CompuServe. She's going to show us how to get online.

This is CompuServe.

You can use it to sign into USENET Newsgroups. It takes a minute to load them up.

Stewart wants to know if Charla can show us something called FTP

You can! Here are some of the world's most popular FTP sites: Apple is one. In Book Stacks Unlimited you can download books.

Stewart says some people are even making money on the Internet!

For example, here's the Whole Earth catalogue.

This is what an order page looks like.

Stewart says the Internet isn't just for business. You can also advance community issues online.

George here helps non-profits get online or get information from the Internet.

Here's a Website you can use to get information about your elected official's record on the environment.

Stewart says: one thing about the Internet is, you spend a lot of time waiting.

Next Stewart says a cool thing about the Web is, you can create your own page.

Stewart says it isn't easy to make a Webpage because you have to use code called HTML

Fortunately, Mike Brown of SoftQuad is here to show off a program that makes it all easier.

This is what it looks like.

Stewart wraps it up, saying: That's the just the tip of the Internet!

Want a videocassette copy of the show? Dial 1-800-800-9520. Or you can write a letter.

Here's the video, if you'd like to watch it

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