THE OLD WEB

Remember when the internet felt like yours?

Before everything got funneled into a handful of corporate platforms and algorithmic feeds, the web was a sprawling frontier of personal sites, fan pages, and webrings — independent, a little weird, full of personality, and free. You followed your curiosity from one obscure page to the next and actually discovered things.

The Old Web Project is a small, stubborn effort to bring that back: a growing network of independent, retro-style fan sites and vintage corners of the web. No tracking-soaked feeds, no engagement traps, no walled gardens — just people making things about what they love, linked together the old-fashioned way: a webring.

The glory days of the web aren’t gone forever. We just have to rebuild them. 👻

What did websites look like in 1996?

If you were online in the mid-90s, you remember it: pages built by hand in raw HTML, dark backgrounds with neon text, tiled background images, blinking text and scrolling <marquee> tickers, “Under Construction” GIFs, visitor hit counters, guestbooks, framesets, MIDI background music, and little 88×31 pixel buttons linking friends’ pages together. Sites lived on GeoCities, Angelfire, and Tripod, and you traveled between them through webrings — not algorithms. It was loud, personal, and gloriously imperfect.

The Old Web Project recreates that look and spirit on purpose: vintage, 1996-style web design with modern, accessible, secure code underneath. Every site in the ring is a little window back into what the internet used to feel like.

Is the old web making a comeback?

Yes — and you’re looking at part of it. Worn out by algorithmic feeds and walled gardens, people are building personal sites, indie pages, and retro fan sites again — on Neocities and their own domains — and reviving webrings to connect them. It’s often called the indie web or small web revival. The Old Web Project exists to grow it: a friendly front door for vintage, 90s-style websites and the people who make them.

🕐 Old Web Time Machine

Type in any website and we’ll whisk you to its earliest surviving snapshot in the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine — see what it looked like decades ago, back in the old web.

▶ Travel back

Or step into a classic:

• Apple · 1996
• Yahoo! · 1996
• Amazon · 1996
• Google · 1998
• Space Jam · 1996
• McDonald’s · 1996
• LEGO · 1997
• GeoCities · 1999

Snapshots courtesy of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.

🤖 Honest about the how

We’re transparent about this: the sites in this network are built today, with modern software and tools — including AI. We’re not pretending it’s 1996, and we’re not hiding how things get made.

The old web was never really about the technology — it was about the spirit: personal, independent, made by people who care, for other people, free of feeds and walled gardens. If modern tools help one person bring more of these independent corners to life, that serves the mission. The tools changed; the vision — a web that feels like ours — is the original one.

🔗 Sites in the ring

• Crypt Keeper Archive A 1996-style Tales From The Crypt fan archive, wiki & horror-news tracker.

Jump in anywhere: 🎲 Visit a random site

❓ Old Web FAQ

What did websites look like in 1996?

Mid-1990s websites were hand-coded in raw HTML: dark pages with neon text, tiled background images, blinking text and scrolling marquee tickers, “Under Construction” GIFs, visitor hit counters, guestbooks, framesets, MIDI background music, and little 88×31 pixel buttons. Most lived on GeoCities, Angelfire, or Tripod, and people traveled between them through webrings rather than search algorithms.

What is the “old web” (Web 1.0)?

The “old web,” or Web 1.0, is the internet of roughly 1994–2004: a frontier of personal homepages and fan sites made by individuals, not corporate platforms. Pages were static, hand-built, weird, and personal — you followed links and curiosity to discover things, with no feeds or algorithms in between.

What is a webring?

A webring is a circle of independent websites linked together with “previous / next / random” navigation, so visitors can hop from one member site to the next. Popular in the 1990s, webrings were how people discovered new sites before search engines and social media — a community-driven alternative to the algorithm. The Old Web Project runs a modern one.

Are vintage, 90s-style websites making a comeback?

Yes. Tired of algorithmic feeds and walled gardens, people are building personal sites, indie pages, and retro fan sites again — on platforms like Neocities and their own domains — and reviving webrings to connect them. It’s often called the “indie web” or “small web” revival, and The Old Web Project is part of it.

How do I make a 1996-style website today?

Hand-write your own HTML and CSS instead of using a big platform, lean into the retro aesthetic (dark backgrounds, pixel fonts, tables, GIFs, a hit counter, an “under construction” sign), keep it personal, and link up with others by joining a webring. You can submit your site to The Old Web Project to join ours.

➕ Join the ring

Building something independent — a fan site, a personal page, a weird little project that isn’t trying to harvest anyone’s attention? You’re exactly who this is for. Submit your site below.

First name Email Your site URL ▶ Submit My Site

After you submit, you’ll get an email with the webring snippet to add to your site. Add it within 7 days and we’ll verify & add you to the ring.