Visited the Computer History Museum and their 'birth of the web' display felt off

Casey Carter · 2026-03-22T14:45:06.646028+00:00

I was at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View last month. Their main 90s internet exhibit focuses on the first browser wars and big corporate stuff. What caught my eye was the tiny corner about GeoCities, with just one screenshot. Everyone talks about Netscape vs. IE, but I think the real story was people making those awful, personal sites. That's what the web felt like. Does anyone else think museums get the early web vibe wrong?

perez.elliot6mo ago

Actually, I think the corporate story matters too. @nora_barnes, those big browser fights set the stage for everything, even the weird GeoCities pages.

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king.river5mo ago

Yeah, nothing says "wild west of the internet" like a clean, corporate display case.

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nora_barnes6mo ago

Totally agree, that GeoCities vibe was everything. I mean, museums always make it look so clean and corporate instead of the weird, messy home pages we actually made.

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