Realizing that I have been making web-sites, either as a hobby or for work, for almost 12 years now, I've decided to blow some minds with some facts about the Internet world when I made my initial plunge into HTML.

• Internet Explorer 5.5 was actually the best browser at the time.
• You wouldn't be able to get a laser mouse for another 4 years.
• Firefox?  Nope.  It's still Netscape.
• Opera as a free download was ad-supported.
• Google was still privately owned, and Yahoo was still the most visited site.
• AOL was still a thing.
• Processors measured in MHz.  Aww yeaaa.
• Majora's Mask?  Slated for a fall release.

The land of web development today is a dreamland in comparison.  Browser compatibilities are almost non-existent in comparison to even 5 years ago, jQuery has greatly simplified dynamic content on webpages, development tools such as Firebug (initial release 2006) are indispensible.  Add in server-side languages making huge progress from the days of choosing bad (PHP < 4.0) or worse (ASP).  Kids these days don't know how good they have it.

robio said:

If we're talking about web development from before the year 2000 can we have a shout-out to GeoCities?

That was the blogging of yesteryear.