In the beginning, www.microsoft.com was just one computer tucked under a table at the end of a long hallway. It was designed to test Microsoft’s first 32-bit Windows implementation of TCP/IP, the software plumbing in Windows that enables Internet communications.
The story has some great screen caps of www.microsoft.com throughout the years. Isn’t it interesting to see how far web design has come since 1995?
Neat
It’s amazing that even in 1995 they were serving close to 400k pages a day. Some of those old designs really take me back… ah the good ol’ days, Netscape 1…sigh…
Steve tells me he has some of te original LISNews designs on his computer, but I haven’t seen them yet. I’m hoping he digs them up, because I’ve since lost mine. I know I have some of the late 99 and early 2000 designs, but lost the earliest.
Anyone else keep old archives of sites?
Re:Neat
How I wish I had kept the first web site I designed (circa 1996). For what I had to work with, it was readable and functional. This is something harder to achieve now, though, I think, in the day when everyone thinks Flash and Shockwave are necessary to do a “cool” site. No, a cool site is one I can access from any computer and don’t have to wait ten minutes to load, thank you! (Car dealerships and music sites are particularly guilty of this, I’ve found).
Re:Neat
I hear you–if it takes too long to load, I’m outta there. And for me, unless I REALLY want the info–you’ve got 15-20 seconds of my attention.
And if a site has embedded music? Forget it, I hit the back button as soon as the first note hits my ears.
I hate frames, too but will use sites that have them.
I’m a firm believer in KISS : Keep it simple, stupid. Which is why the fanciest thing on the website I designed for our school are the dhtml menus I used.
s/