01
Hampster Dance
A page of bouncing hamsters set to a sped-up earworm became a widely shared early-web hit.
Archive score95
Internet archive / 1997
Internet moments from 1997
Backdrop
The Internet in 1997
Year reference
Mars PathfinderRemote technology became a shared public spectacle.
Source: NASA/JPL via Wikimedia Commons- The web was still built from personal pages, web rings, email forwards, and search directories rather than feeds.
- Instant messaging entered everyday life with AOL Instant Messenger, making online presence feel social and immediate.
Follow the thread
Trails from 1997
Archive order
Archive picks
02
Aqua’s “Barbie Girl”
Aqua’s plastic-pop duet made its chorus and candy-colored video instantly recognizable.
Archive score94
03
Bert Is Evil
A cranky Sesame Street puppet kept turning up at history’s worst meetings—because one art student kept putting him there.
Archive score93
04
TROOPS
Stormtroopers patrolled Tatooine like small-town cops, treating Star Wars plot points as routine calls.
Archive score92
05
Sluggy Freelance
Pete Abrams gave a freelance web designer and a cynical rabbit a near-daily comic strip.
Archive score80
06
The Best Page in the Universe
Maddox made the certainty of an internet rant into a comic persona.
Archive score79
07
User Friendly
Illiad turned the daily indignities of an ISP office into an early webcomic institution.
Archive score78