25 years of the Commercial Internet
Part 1. The Brochureware Years 1990-1995
I came into this business at the tail end of the brochureware years. For most companies adopting the web early, the goal was simply to “get online”. Web architecture of the era used basic taxonomy to sort the content flowing from the home page (aka the Home Site). Not many websites went past “Who We Are”, “What We Do” and “Contact Information”. Almost none of them had search, but they did sport neat-o site maps and FAQ sections that often acted as the main interface to the brochureware.
Not a lot of thought was put into the content of the website. Success for most companies was simply about being online. Sadly, most web design shops of that era didn’t even employ writers. The copy was often left to the client, the producers or even (shudder) the art directors.
For the most part, web sites fell into three main categories:
- Reference: Simple corporate or special interest reference sites (hence the term Brochureware)
- Task: Banking, credit card and other billing firms found their way to the web very quickly. One of my first jobs was as Jr. Designer on Canada Trust’s Easy Web (now TD Canada Trust’s Easy Web) with the now debunked (and possibly defamed) Mackerel Interactive in Toronto.
- Search: Still in their infancy, internet search tools were pretty bad. Finding a good website usually meant several clicks through a few pre-determined categories. Even at this tender age, many of the bigger search engines started to look at themselves as “portals“. This business model relied on the paid placement of links on high-traffic sites; very attractive to advertisers, but often a dead end to consumers. Google’s founders must have been watching … and learning.
Yahoo.com circa 1994
Early Communities Online
For the most part, online community in this period was limited to gated Bulletin Board Systems and to those who had a firm grasp of the “back end“. By the end of this era, a handful of self-publishing platforms like GeoCities started poking up, but the impact of this was not felt until after 1995.
One community site of note from that era was IMDB.com (The Internet Movie Database). Launched in 1990, this site allowed users to rate and review movies. Standard fare found on today’s sites, but certainly ahead of its time back then. Acquired by Amazon in 1998, IMDB is still the pre-eminent movie resource on the internet.
Check back again for the next post in The first 25 years of the Commercial Web series: 1995-2000 – The e-Commerce Years
25 years of the Commercial Internet 1990-2015
1990-1995 – The Brochureware Years
1995-2000 – The e-Commerce Years
2000-2005 The Advertising Years
2005-2010 Web 2.0 and The Social Media Years
2010-2015 – The Remix Years
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3 Responses to “The Brochureware Years 1990-1995”
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January 4th, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Great series, and I love that you’re going to be writing posts about the future
January 4th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Stay connected. 2010-2015 is coming later this week.
collin
August 18th, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Great common sense here. Wish I’d tohguht of that. Thanks for sahnirg. What a pleasure to read! | SwissGer Backpack