Dreaming Of Search In 1994

Around the time the World Wide Web was being opened to users of AOL for the first time, and 9600 baud was a massive upgrade in speed for modems, some clever people made predictions about the future that held up pretty well over the years.

posted it to Slashdot. It's an article that appeared in the long-defunct Internet World magazine, published by Alan Meckler's Mecklermedia and Nethack at the top of her Best of Entertainment list. It's a game I've installed on every machine I've ever used as a workstation for years. Her most telling "Worst Of" selection should seem rather surprising today: "The organization of the World-Wide Web. I love the Web, but finding something specific on it is a nightmare. And because the Web is growing by leaps and bounds, I just don't see things getting easier anytime soon." Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google fame turned 21 that year, two years before their research project on search began. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's first staff counsel, Mike Godwin, lamented the appearance of "less-than-desirable material" showing up on the Net. In 1996, he was one of the lawyers taking on the Communications Decency Act; the Supreme Court found in favor of Godwin's side on First Amendment grounds. For people concerned with freedom of speech issues and the Bush Administration, Krypton Neon owner Kenny Greenberg's list of the worst things of 1994 (the Digital Telephony bill, the Clipper Chip FIPS, obscenity prosecutions of bulletin board systems, and media hysteria about e-mail stalking and the threat to children on the Internet) probably reads like a modern headline. His prediction for the future? "There will be a concerted effort by the U.S. Congress to regulate content on the Internet." ••• Thirteen years have passed since these and other predictions hit the newsstands in Internet World. Spam isn't just N95 will look quaint after a company debuts Oakley-style glasses with a built-in camera and microphone, and wireless connectivity to post content in real time. The falling circulation for print media could mean the demise of long-lived publications like the Wall Street Journal in their current forms. Even shrinking the size of the paper as the Journal plans to do won't overcome the cost savings they can enjoy by making the inevitable shift to online-only. Predictions and a couple of bucks will get you a nice hot chocolate at Starbucks. But the advances made in wireless technology and technology miniaturization, coupled with the spiraling costs of newsprint, could make our forward-looking statements look downright prescient in fourteen years. Tag: Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Bookmark murdok: David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.