The absolute best thing about the web is that no matter how long it has been, there really isn’t anywhere for a website to hide. So lets have some fun and take a look, way back, at some of the companies that helped to build the Internet as we know it today.

This time, instead of trying to see were they are going — lets look at how far they have come.

eBay

June 14th 1997

That’s right folks, you can get your very own Y2K Irrigation tool from this early version of eBay.

Google

November 11th 1998

The Google Search Engine prototype, “Might work some of the time!” The best part of this is that it premiered the idea of the eternal Google BETA.

Microsoft

October 20th 1996

Internet News and Chat Servers! You mean Microsoft is allowing little old me to build “virtual communities” on my own website? Holy Geocities Batman.

Monster

November 11th 1996

Their logo looks like the map design for a really bad version of Civiliazation.

Yahoo

October 17h 1996

I don’t have too much to say about this one, except that it might be the very last time that an Internet directory was useful.

Web 2.0 Roundup

The big question. How well do you think these sites would have done without the hodgepodge of extra cruft they have added on in the last ten years?

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