so it came to pass that the newfangled thingie they called "the Web" rose from a neat-o concept to full-on stardom in the mid-'90s. And lo, the history books would later write, it was in 1996 that it became apparent at last to all that the Web was no mere flash in the pan, no Macarena of text and image.
Remember, just two years ago, when Hotwired wasn't just the hottest thing, it was pretty much the only thing? Remember last year, when if you didn't have a domain name, you were as pathetically out of date as Ann Landers' hairstyle?
This year, the honeymoon was over. Even as pundits proclaimed the Web had crested and was on the downswing, ever more individuals and corporations stampeded to carve out a virtual room of their own. In other words, like every other medium before it, the Web settled in, made itself at home in our lives, and observed with amusement reports of its demise. Because whether it's entertaining, informing, or boring the crap out of us, it's not going anywhere.
Herewith a few highlights and low points to store on the server of your memory.
The bad news was that the Communications Decency Act passed. The good news for all of us was that it was challenged and shot down faster than a Clinton cabinet nominee. The Web responded to the threat against free expression with the highly visible blue ribbon campaign, articulate and impassioned reports from the trenches, and a flurry of grassroots consciousness raising that demonstrated powerfully the commitment those who've found a home on the Web have to keeping their words and ideas on it intact.
By now, every television network has its own Web site, plus there's a bucketload of hit shows that have more fan pages devoted to them than David Duchovny has panting groupies. But this was the year that turnabout seemed the order of the day, as TV about the Net took off. MSNBC launched with much hoopla, and the jewel in their crown, The Site, demonstrated what might have happened if Jane Pauley had married Max Headroom. Meanwhile, c|net continued to spread like so much kudzu — Web sites, TV shows, download destinations — while MSNBC and Wired's Netizen TV was an almost touchingly low-tech leap backwards from new media to broadcasting.
While WebTV, @Home and others rushed to find easier and faster ways to turn your TV cables and sets into "Internet appliances," "push" became the buzzword du jour for Web businesses in the latter half of '96. Don't bother to click, say Pointcast and its "push-media" brethren; just sit back and let the information wash over you. Forget about all that interactivity nonsense and enjoy the Web from your couch. Potatohood is powerful!
When the Cool Site of the Year Awards started way back in 1995, it was just an intimate little gathering of hardcore nerds and the creators of The Spot. This year, the event was a chi-chi Manhattan luvfest, featuring more goateed hipsters in collarless shirts than should ever be brought together in one room that isn't about to be torched. Groovy locals, who six months earlier couldn't have fought their way out of an AOL chat room, congratulated each other on their Web savvy 'til the cows came home. But the online denizens themselves voted not for 'tude-driven velvet rope-type sites but the folksy dark horse from Maryland, Discovery Online, as their favorite of the year. Fortunately, only minor ego damage was incurred.
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