The 1999 Web
Twelve web sites from the class of 1999, lovingly re-imagined.
Over 2,800 pages. No broadband required.

*** Welcome to the Information Superhighway! *** Party like it's 1999 *** All 12 sites are Y2K compliant *** Sign my guestbook! *** Best viewed in Netscape Navigator 4.7 at 800x600 *** You've got mail! ***



Remember the web before it was five web sites? Here are twelve of the greats from the dot-com boom, rebuilt from Wayback Machine captures as affectionate parodies. The layouts, colors and quirks are as close as we could get; every name, story, product, review, auction, homepage, song and graphic is invented. Search the directory, bid on a Furby, moderate a flame war, sign a guestbook, and lose money on cat litter.

Everything works the way 1999 did it: cookies, document.write(), image rollovers, framesets and MIDI. Nothing is sent anywhere. Click any screenshot to visit.


Pick a site, any site! New!

1. Yowza!_□x
Yowza! home page
Yowza! a takeoff of Yahoo!
The web's favourite hand-built directory: 124 categories, 352 invented sites, the sunglasses icon for the cool ones.
  • Search for dogs
  • Browse Recreation & Sports
  • Suggest a Site
  • Personalize My Yowza!
2. AltaVisor_□x
AltaVisor home page
AltaVisor a takeoff of AltaVista
Smart searching. Its spider really crawled every other site here, plus 650 pages of an invented "rest of the Web": 2,271 pages indexed.
  • Ask Where can I find pictures of hamsters?
  • Try Images and Translate
  • Read the Crawler Report
3. Ask Reeves_□x
Ask Reeves home page
Ask Reeves a takeoff of Ask Jeeves
Ask a question in plain English. Your butler will see to it (and fix your spelling).
  • Ask where can i find pictres of beagles
  • Peek Through the Keyhole
4. Orinoco.com_□x
Orinoco.com home page
Orinoco.com a takeoff of Amazon.com
Earth's biggest bookstore, named after a different river: 148 invented books, reviews, a cart, checkout and 1-Click.
  • Sign in as demo@orinoco.com / river
  • Buy a book with test card 4111 1111 1111 1111
  • Then try 1-Click
5. uBid_□x
uBid home page
uBid a takeoff of eBay
Your personal trading community. 197 auctions that count down, really end, pick a winner and relist; proxy bidding; feedback stars.
  • Sign in as beaniebaron / bidbid
  • Bid on something in Going, Going, Gone
  • Check My uBid
6. eToyz_□x
eToyz home page
eToyz a takeoff of eToys
Toys delivered by Christmas. Probably. Shop by age, the Gift Finder, wish lists and a live order-by countdown.
  • Use the Gift Finder
  • Start a wish list
  • Meet Sprocket the robot
7. Petz.com_□x
Petz.com home page
Petz.com a takeoff of Pets.com
Because pets can't drive! Every product sold at a loss, a stock ticker that only goes up, and Argyle the Sock Dog.
  • Put 40 lb of cat litter in the cart and check out
  • Watch the Super Bowl ad
  • Find the hidden page (hint: Argyle's nose)
8. GeoHoods_□x
GeoHoods home page
GeoHoods a takeoff of GeoCities
Free home pages! 251 homesteaders in 15 neighborhoods: UFO logs, kitten shrines, boy-band fan pages, Y2K bunkers, MIDI, MARQUEE, guestbooks and webrings.
  • Visit the Area52 neighborhood
  • Pick a random homepage
  • Build your own page
9. The Hamster Shuffle_□x
The Hamster Shuffle home page
The Hamster Shuffle a takeoff of the Hampster Dance
356 dancing critters in seven varieties and an original chiptune. Turn your speakers up.
  • Click the tune link if your browser won't play MIDI
  • Meet the Dancers
10. Dashdot_□x
Dashdot home page
Dashdot a takeoff of Slashdot
News for nerds. Stuff that matters. 41 stories, about 1,000 threaded comments, moderation, thresholds and polls.
  • Log in with any nickname for moderator points
  • Moderate a comment
  • Try to post "first post!"
11. Snapster_□x
Snapster home page
Snapster a takeoff of Napster
Share your music library. Search 638 invented songs, watch the downloads crawl, hang out in chat. Legal department pending.
  • Open the Web Edition and search swing
  • Get Selected, then watch Transfers
  • Join #Rock
12. CNM Interactive_□x
CNM Interactive home page
CNM Interactive a takeoff of CNN.com
December 20, 1999: 81 stories, QuickVote, the weather and a live countdown to the year 2000.
  • Vote in QuickVote
  • Open the Y2K Special Report
  • Get the weather for 04101

[ Take me to a random site! ]



Under construction How it was made
These sites were built for KoldFusion, a from-scratch C re-creation of a 1999 ColdFusion 4.5 web application server, which serves each one at its own address (http://geohoods.localhost:8500/) like an IIS virtual site. This copy is the same files on GitHub Pages.
  • Every page is generated by Python scripts kept in each site's tools/ folder.
  • Every GIF is drawn in code with Pillow, and every MIDI tune is composed in code. No original artwork was used.
  • All links are relative, so the whole thing runs from any folder, even straight off a floppy (well, 37 floppies).
  • Pages are scaled up on big screens so 800x600 layouts stay readable.
Source: github.com/HappyCatKitten/web1999 · Server: github.com/HappyCatKitten/koldfusion

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A nostalgic tribute. All names, text and graphics are original parodies; the companies they poke fun at are not affiliated with this site, living or acquired.
Y2K compliant · Last updated: December 31, 1999, 11:59 PM