Internet Archive

Browse websites, communities, people, memes, fandoms, forgotten media, and digital history.

Explore the Internet

This section is about the history and culture of the internet. From homemade websites and old message boards to memes, fandoms, internet personalities, lost media, and bizarre online rabbit holes.

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INTERNET HISTORY

A History of the World Wide Web A short (long) history of the internet

THE OLD WEB

GeoCities Neighborhoods, personal homepages, fan sites, GIFs, visitor counters, and one of the most famous parts of the old web Personal Websites Homepages, shrines, diaries, collections, link pages, and creating your own little place online

ONLINE COMMUNITIES

Internet Forums Message boards, avatars, signatures, moderators, forum drama, and communities built around shared interests DeviantArt Online art communities, original characters, fan art, adoptables, bases, and digital art culture

INTERNET PEOPLE

Chris Chan Sonichu, internet documentation, online communities, trolling, and one of the web's most extensively documented individuals Famous Internet Mysteries Anonymous users, mysterious creators, strange accounts, and people whose online identities became mysteries

FANDOM & FAN CULTURE

Fanfiction Online archives, transformative works, shipping, fandom communities, and fan-written stories Original Characters OCs, character communities, roleplay, art, character profiles, and sharing fictional creations online

LOST & FORGOTTEN

Dead Websites Abandoned homepages, expired domains, broken images, dead links, and websites that disappeared Digital Decay Link rot, obsolete formats, dead services, missing files, and why digital things can disappear surprisingly easily Abandoned Online Games Dead MMOs, virtual worlds, closed servers, fan preservation, and games that can no longer officially be played

WEIRD INTERNET

Bad Art History How did deviantArt change art? Who is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way? Shock Sites and The Iraq War How did early gore and shock sites impact a real war? Internet Hoaxes Fake stories, fabricated images, viral lies, alternate reality games, and things people mistakenly believed were real Cicada 3301 Cryptographic puzzles, mysterious messages, internet investigation, and one of the web's best-known mysteries