All this growth meant that everybody who was anyone suddenly had a web site. In all this rush to make websites people often forgot to put any content on their site. The most popular things to put up on your site were links and a guestbook. In fact, many sites weren't much more then "welcome to my site check out my links and guestbook".
Websites were often so ill-designed that they were literally bad for your eyes. Below is a list of the top ten signs your website might be from the 1990s:
1. Blinking text and animated gifs
The 1990s Internet suffered from TV-envy. Everyone wanted moving elements on their homepage but most dialup Internet connections were far too slow for features such as streaming video. The solution was to jam as many animated GIFs and as much blinking text as possible on every page.
2. Stating the obvious
There was a tendency for web designers to state the obvious a lot:
My Homepage on the World Wide Web
Welcome, you have reached my page on the Internet!
3. under construction
In the 1990s the first step in making a webpage was to create hundreds of empty pages that have a cool "under construction" image.
4. Email me mailboxes
Today, websites still feature contact information of one kind or another but mailboxes like this one are so 1990s:
5. Best viewed with Netscape
In the 1990s it was notoriously difficult to get your webpage looking right in Microsoft Internet Explorer 3. There was a major revolt against the Microsoft browser and many people had a "best viewed with Netscape" image on their page. It was not uncommon to specify the exact version of Netscape required for the webpage to look right. Naturally, most pages provided a link to download the correct version of Netscape.
best viewed with Netscape 3.2
6. Back to top and home
Every page needed to have "home" and "back to top" buttons.
back to top
home
7. Webring
A common way of getting traffic in the 1990s was to join a webring. A webring is a group of websites that all agree to link each other in a big circle. Users could browse the sites in the ring by hitting "next" and "previous" buttons.
PREVIOUS SITE | RANDOM SITE | SITE LIST | NEXT SITE
8. music
Every 1990s web page should have some background music because people couldn't possibly be looking at more than one site or listening to music of their own. This music should be a 10 second clip of your favorite tune played in an endless loop.
9. Splash Pages
In the 1990s it was important to confirm that users really want to see a webpage before letting the user in:
Welcome to My Page on the Web!
ENTER | EXIT
Sometime around 1998, people started adding Flash to these splash pages. This way you could make users watch a mandatory five minute animation before entering the site.
10. Wallpaper
Wallpaper was an important element of 1990s websites. Wallpaper should be a complex patterned image, preferably a flashing animated gif and should be the same color as your text.
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