The Nineties: A Book

by Chuck Klosterman

Late in 1993, The New York Times ran a small story about Mosaic, the pre-Netscape web browser now credited as a catalyst for what the internet would become. Within technology circles, Mosaic was immediately perceived as a game-changing software application. It added graphic elements to what had been a purely textual experience and increased the reach of where the web could go. But the article also noted its limitations: There remain, however, significant barriers to using Mosaic. It requires that the user have a computer that is directly connected to the global Internet. Many businesses and almost all universities now have such connections, but the majority of personal computer users currently connect to the Internet only indirectly through on-line information services like Delphi or America Online. Though it’s easy to understand this problem now, imagine how confusing it would seem to a nation where less than a quarter of its households possessed a home computer. It was perplexing even to early adopters of dial-up providers like AOL. If they weren’t already reaching the “global” internet, what level of internet were they reaching?