The homepages
Click a page to read its story.
- adobe.com – 1998Jul 3, 1998
adobe.com in July 1998: a cartoon monkey for ImageReady, “Tired of Monkeying Around?”, and Photoshop 5.0 upgrades.
- altavista.com – 1998May 5, 1998
AltaVista in May 1998, still at altavista.digital.com: a What’s New panel about Y2K and People Search, a green sponsor box and Digital Equipment Corporation in the footer.
- aol.com – 1998May 8, 1998
AOL.COM in May 1998: sixteen Web Channels and a box with “TRY AOL” and “50 Free Hours”.
- apple.com – 1998May 9, 1998
Two days after the iMac: a big wordmark, the iMac writing “hello”, and Pro. Go. Whoa.
- bbc.co.uk – 1998Jul 3, 1998
BBC Online in July 1998: “Your gateway to over 200 sites and 25,000 pages”, with Today on the Web, Choices and Services.
- bestbuy.com – 1998Jul 10, 1998
Best Buy Online in July 1998: “Buy CDs Online!”, “Over 100,000 Titles” and a Page/Plant concert-ticket auction.
- blizzard.com – 1998May 19, 1998
StarCraft press quotes on Blizzard's homepage, including “Amazing! XXXXX”, above the v1.01 patch news.
- disney.com – 1998Jul 3, 1998
disney.com in July 1998, “The Web Site for Families”: four tiles, @Disney, family, Blast for Kids and Shop, and an Internet Explorer button at the bottom.
- gamefaqs.com – 1998Dec 12, 1998
GameFAQs homepage: red table headings organize updates, consoles and partner sites; the archived masthead image is missing.
- gamespot.com – 1998Jun 13, 1998
GameSpot's 1998 homepage: A purple sidebar and dense three-column PC gaming news replace the earlier image-led front page.
- geocities.com – 1998Jul 3, 1998
GeoCities homepage: 14 “GeoAvenues”, banner tiles for Amazon, Surplus Direct, CDnow and First USA, a TRUSTe badge at the bottom.
- hotmail.com – 1998Nov 11, 1998
An orange MSN oval above Hotmail; the blue sign-in panel and its Frames choice stay.
- lycos.com – 1998Jan 9, 1998
Lycos in January 1998: the same search box and Web Guides as December 1997, with the copyright year changed to 1998.
- mcdonalds.com – 1998Dec 5, 1998
McDonald's framed homepage: seven yellow tabs, Happy Meal toys and “The Legend of Grimace Island”.
- microsoft.com – 1998Dec 5, 1998
“Welcome to Microsoft's Homepage”: the site sorted by who you are, and “Read About the Microsoft Trial”.
- nintendo.com – 1998May 30, 1998
Nintendo’s homepage in May 1998: the same NBA Courtside banner, “the kid got game!”, with a small Privacy Policy link below it.
- nokia.com – 1998Jun 10, 1998
Nokia's June 1998 homepage frame: “Nokia is the world's second largest manufacturer of mobile phones” and “Get World Cup scores”.
- nytimes.com – 1998Dec 12, 1998
NYTimes.com in December 1998: a text front page “Site Updated 8:50 PM”, the impeachment vote and NYC weather at 42° F.
- spacejam.com – 1998Apr 20, 1998
A Space Jam lobby: “WELCOME TO”, a yellow “PLEASE NOTE” exit-sign card, “FEATURE PRESENTATION” and banner ads.
- yahoo.com – 1998Jun 30, 1998
Yahoo in June 1998: “free @yahoo.com email”, Yahoo! Games and a World Cup 98 link above the directory.
- ea.com – 1998Feb 7, 1998
Electronic Arts' ea online frameset with the same studio rail and new game pictures around the wordmark.
- nick.com – 1998Jul 12, 1998
Nick.com in July 1998: a lime field of blobs with “Peep CatDog's new movie!” and six tiles of games, polls and trivia.
- amazon.com – 1998Dec 2, 1998
First captureFour tabs, an editor's novel of the week, and “Sprechen Sie Deutsch? Visit Amazon.de”.
- ask.com – 1998Dec 3, 1998
First captureAsk Jeeves in December 1998: “Just type a question and click "Ask!"”, with “Why is the sky blue?” as the example; many images are blank in this capture.
- cartoonnetwork.com – 1998Jul 12, 1998
First captureCartoon Network’s July 1998 pre-launch homepage: cartoon pictures around the checkerboard .com logo and “LET’S DO LAUNCH!… JULY 21st”.
- craigslist.org – 1998Dec 2, 1998
First captureCraigslist in December 1998: a text page titled ListFoundation, with “I'd like to Post an Ad.” and a party invitation for December 17.
- espn.com – 1998Dec 12, 1998
First captureESPN.com in December 1998: headline lists, a column on the NBA lockout and “DiMaggio out of coma”; the logo image does not render.
- expedia.com – 1998Dec 2, 1998
First captureMicrosoft Expedia Travel under the MSN logo: Book a flight, Reserve a room, Rent a car, and a fare finder set to December 23–25.
- google.com – 1998Dec 2, 1998
First captureGoogle’s homepage in December 1998: the “Google!” logo with BETA, “Search the web using Google!” and three teal boxes.
- icq.com – 1998Feb 24, 1998
First captureICQ.com in February 1998: a dense portal with the counter “02/22/98 - 8,000,000 Subscribers”, a people search box and a warning about chain letters.
- ign.com – 1998Dec 3, 1998
First captureIGN's black-and-yellow homepage: “The #1 site for gamers”, red tabs for PC, N64, PSX and Dreamcast, news dated December 2, 1998.
- ikea.com – 1998Dec 2, 1998
First captureIKEA Worldwide in December 1998: yellow and orange, a country menu at the top, five yellow buttons and an IVAR design tool in “what’s new”.
- newgrounds.com – 1998Dec 12, 1998
First captureNew Ground Atomix at newgrounds.com in December 1998: yellow links under “Now Playing”, from Club a Seal to “The Portal (new!)”, above a first-person news column.
- nike.com – 1998Jul 13, 1998
First captureNike's teal sport links, “girls in the game” and a soccer photo badged “Engineered for Women Athletes”.
- playstation.com – 1998Dec 5, 1998
First captureplaystation.com in December 1998: the PlayStation logo on a globe, five regions on orbiting controller buttons and “WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF PLAYSTATION®”.
- pokemon.com – 1998Dec 2, 1998
First capturePokémon’s December 1998 homepage, “Pokémon Times”: a poll, a Viz comic, KFC beanbags and five Pokémon Beetles to win.
- winamp.com – 1998Dec 5, 1998
First captureWinamp homepage in 1998: dark red-and-black portal pairs Winamp 2.05 with player screenshots, news and a dense left navigation. Some images are missing in this archived rendering.
One capture per site from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, checked by eye. What a capture shows is what the archive kept that day: some images and scripts are missing.
Every year
How well do you know old homepages? See a capture, guess its year.
▶ Play Guess the Year