Google Search turns 20. Here's what the internet was like back then
From 56K to designated internet time on the family computer, we look back at our earliest internet memories.
Google Search turns 20 today and since its launch in 1998, it forever changed how we found things on the internet. In addition to saving students (like me in particular) a trip to the local library to do research, it helped users sift and comb through the massive amount of information and resources the internet offered.
While the very beginnings of the internet is considered to be around the 1960s to the 1990s, the modern and global "world wide web" as we come to know it really took off in the 1990s. (Read: The 50 most significant moments of Internet history.)
Not only did Google Search launch during this time, but AOL connected 20 million active users online; web browsers like Netscape, Internet Explorer and Mozilla flourished; and Sprint made dial-up commercially available for homes everywhere.
It's within this era that CNET editors reminisce about their earliest times connecting to and browsing the internet as we know it today. From that signature noise of dial-up we can still hear in our heads to free trial discs from AOL, this was what it was like to go online back in the day.
