Riding the Wayback Machine to 1999

I've been in a nostalgic mood lately as it's been 10 years since I graduated high school. So I thought I'd take a digital walk down memory lane courtesy of the Wayback Machine and look at some of the old websites I frequently visited in 1999.

Let's get started (click on the links below to see the versions of those websites in 1999):

AOL: We had a dial-up AOL connection (I can hear that dial tone and funky noise in my head now) and of course used AOL instant messenger - a lot!  

Yahoo: I loved Yahoo back then and had a Yahoo email account as my main email address and also used Yahoo messenger frequently in the early 2000s. Back then I thought, hey that would be a cool place to work for after college. I applied when I finished college in 2003 and got the auto-response that I wasn't a match for any of their positions. Oh well, it worked out for me in the end and now I use that old email address for junk mail. But I'll admit for awhile Yahoo was my homepage.

Asian Avenue: A large social networking site in the form of a chat room for Asians. I went here enough back then that I was compelled to request an AsianAvenue key chain. I saw this the other day in a box of random things in my dresser drawer. [note to self: time to start getting rid of stuff]

KMEL: I used to check out KMEL, Wild 107.7 and other bay area radio station websites to see their playlists and figure out what CD singles I wanted to buy.  

Santa Clara County Library: Yes, I actually used the internet for academic purposes too, somewhat, well not really. To save money I borrowed CDs, VHS tapes, DVDs and magazines from the Milpitas library and a book on occasion. 

If I've got you thinking about 1999, here's a review of the year: http://www.infoplease.com/spot/99yir1.html

Ten years later, I've traded in the dial-up for high-speed internet, have iGoogle as my homepage, use gmail for email, use iTunes to figure out what music I want to buy and buy it, can get most magazine content online and have traded in AOL instant messenger, Yahoo messenger and AsianAvenue for Google chat and Facebook and watch videos, TV shows and movies online. It's been a good 10 years.