Internet 1996 vs. Internet 2011 [Infographic]

If you’ve been Internet savvy since back in the ’80s, you know that it used to take forever to even download text on the screen. Images were a pain, and if you ever thought, back then, that someday there might be movies on the Internet, you would have most likely laughed at that thought. However, as with everything, technology breaks boundaries and new ways are discovered that allow us to create new services online. I am sure that in 10-20 years, we’ll look back on today’s services and think we were so lame, and that the way we do things now online isn’t optimized at all.

Comparing today and the Internet back in 1996 is most definitely going to make your head spin a couple of laps. The fact that we had no clue, or no tools rather, to create graphics good enough to at least look like a decent website is laughable. Some of the most visited websites today have come a long way since the Internet started, and they set out to conquer the world with their services.

A really retro and quite informative infographic created by Online University will show you exactly what the differences are between the Internet back in 1996 and the Internet today. It’s a developmental progression that I am sure is unprecedented in pretty much any area of technology… or at least I think so. I smile continuously when looking at this infographic since the retro feeling of the Netscape Navigator constantly grabs my attention. It’s a truly well done infographic; however, just a little bit busy… but then again, that was the Internet back in 1996. The expression “less is more” had obviously not hit the designers and web developers back then yet.

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