1981
The Compuserve internet bulletin board system (BBS) had serious navigational
problems and no visual appeal. There was no graphical user interface.
All computer screens looked like this.
1984
Teletext experiment in London: The signal is embedded in the verticle blanking interval. Cheap delivery system is good, long wait for page download and poor graphics are problems.
1984
Viewtron experiment by Knight-Ridder flops in Miami. Some graphics are possible but users and advertisers are disappointed in the system.
1988
Prodigy was an ISP experiment financed by Sears and IBM.
CBS was also involved in the early stages but decided against it.
1980s
French Minitel system was a combination telephone and computer network. It was the world's first online business network. It worked, and it still works.
c. 1989
A Minitel screen circa 1989. Somehow the French never got much credit for this system.
1993
Prodigy partnered with the Atlanta Journal and Constitution to create this online information system. The graphics were preloaded -- only the text changed from day to day.
January 1994
January, 1994, the San Jose Mercury News in Silicon Valley, California is using an America On Line interface. The text box in the middle of the right side of the page is the only thing that changes.
May 1994
The San Jose Mercury News in Silicon Valley, California tries a new system called the World Wide Web where graphics and text are both sent out over the Internet together. Notice that the columns of buttons and text are very similar to the AOL design approach.
