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 / 1998
Internet moments from 1998
Backdrop
The Internet in 1998
Year reference
McSweeney’s Internet TendencyLiterary satire found a durable home on the web.
Source: McSweeney’s Internet Tendency- Personal sites and small online publications gave writers a direct route to readers, without needing a broadcast outlet or a print distribution system.
- Search directories, email, and bookmarks still shaped discovery, so a complete joke page could travel by recommendation and return visits.
Follow the thread
Trails from 1998
Archive order
Archive picks
02
Concise Interviews with Notable People, Vol. I
Famous people answered perfectly ordinary questions, which was the problem.
Archive score86
03
Babylon Park: Spoohunter
An alien snack commercial treated the origin of its product like the only question in the galaxy worth singing about.
Archive score85
04
Penny Arcade’s First Strip: “The SIN Of Long Load Times”
Penny Arcade began with a comic about the most ordinary old-PC frustration: waiting for a game to load.
Archive score82
05
Demotivators
A black frame, an inspiring landscape, and a caption designed to make workplace inspiration feel much worse.
Archive score81
06
Pokey the Penguin: The First Strip
A crudely drawn penguin says hello while an Italian ship threatens the Arctic Circle-Candy.
Archive score80
07
Joe Cartoon Goes Online
Joe Shields built a home for sharp, strange cartoons before web video had a default platform.
Archive score79
08
The First Google Doodle
Google’s tiny Burning Man stick figure turned a search homepage into an out-of-office joke.
Archive score77
09
The Last Page of the Internet
A page claiming to be the web’s final stop told visitors to turn off the computer.
Archive score76