Remembering Alta Vista — ‘high-speed’ search for the early Web
It was the go-to search engine of the early Web, and it was launched 20 years ago today. The pioneer was Alta Vista, and its technology of using spiders to … Continue reading
Prediction of the year, 1995: Internet ‘will soon go spectacularly supernova’
The Internet’s emergence into mainstream consciousness in 1995 was met no small amount of skepticism and eye-rolling. It was all overhyped, critics said. A distraction. Notable among the skeptics was … Continue reading
Exoplanet discovery a memorable first in 1995
That 1995 was a watershed year is quite clear. It was the year the Internet and World Wide Web began entering the mainstream. It was the year of the Oklahoma … Continue reading
Defying critics to publish the Unabomber ‘Manifesto’
It may not have been courageous necessarily, but the joint decision by the Washington Post and New York Times 20 years ago to publish the Unabomber “Manifesto” certainly cut against the … Continue reading
Contrived ballyhoo: Recalling Microsoft’s rollout of Windows 95
No prominent event of 1995 — a watershed year in ways serious and significant — was more hyped or contrived than Microsoft’s official release of the Windows 95 computer operating … Continue reading
Once-dominant and much-loathed, IE turns 20
Internet Explorer, the buggy, disliked, yet once-dominant Web browser, this weekend reaches the 20th anniversary of its initial release. It’s an important occasion in Internet history that probably will go … Continue reading
Dilemma on the Merc’s front page: Lead with Netscape? Jerry Garcia death?
As a postscript to the recent coverage revisiting Netscape’s eye-popping IPO of August 1995, it’s worth recalling how the leading newspaper of Silicon Valley carried the news — and what … Continue reading
The ‘Netscape Moment,’ 20 years on
We’re in the runup to the 20th anniversary of the “Netscape Moment” of 1995, the day when a California startup’s eye-popping market debut illuminated the World Wide Web for millions … Continue reading
Late summer 1995, and the spate of media mergers
Twenty years ago this week, Disney Company revealed it was buying the parent corporation of ABC for $19 billion in what then was the second most-lucrative corporate merger ever in … Continue reading
20 years after its launch, Amazon showing an unlikable side
Twenty years after it opened for business online, Amazon.com is showing a meaner side that has become pretty obvious. The world’s largest online retailer delivers an enormous variety of products … Continue reading
The 1995 Blog 