The Internet in 2005

Neil_N · 23/02/15 - 16:12

What can you remember about the internet just ten years ago?

I know this site existed, and was probably still popular as it is. Youtube didn't really come along until the end of the year, and didn't take off until 2006.

Facebook was in it's infancy, and back then it was a case of chat rooms or if you wanted to chat to someone, you would get their addy and have long convo via MSN.

Torrent sites were around, and you could freely download mp3s.

starry_rune · 23/02/15 - 16:37

Frankie_Little · 23/02/15 - 16:45

I remember chat rooms, but I never really understood the appeal. I also remember the first big internet hoax, the Kaycee Nicole Swenson story, although that was a few years earlier.

Neil_N · 23/02/15 - 16:45

What was Koko? The only Koko I know of is that gorilla that communicate with humans.

Faceparty was kind of a FB predecessor, I know it was used a lot by people wanting some no strings fun.

It's interesting how we've progressed so far in a short space of time. I remember the part-time course I was doing at college, we were always advised to use floppies and although it could fit a shed-load of word documents on there, hard to believe now how storage is now with 8/16GB USB sticks being the norm.

wampa1 · 23/02/15 - 16:47

I would lose whole evenings in the Yahoo! Movie Chat Room, though that was around 2000-2002, I think.

PinSarla · 23/02/15 - 16:50

Sure it's changed a helluva lot in 10 years, but I can only imagine what early internet users must think of the modern web.

It certainly felt a lot different, a lot of places had more of a 'wild west' feel even back in 2005, more so in the early 00s.

Neil_N · 23/02/15 - 16:53

Just the other day me and my sister were talking about the internet when we first went online in 2000/2001.

When we had it, we used it download tracks of Audiogalaxy (I never forgot the dubious "Slave for You" by Britney Spears mp3 my sister downloaded that was a man yelping like a dog for 3 mins), look for ringtones for nokia phones to compose, song lyrics, homework and to look up info on popstars and in my case it was always to check the football and Birmingham City site oh and mods for Championship Manager (eg editors, tactics)

TheTruth1983 · 23/02/15 - 16:56

O2 WAP.

I lost many a productive hour on WAP chat :eek:

venusinflares · 23/02/15 - 16:59

Deleted - it's already been mentioned.

Vast_Girth · 23/02/15 - 17:05

I'd just finished my first year working as a professional web designer. Lots of table based layouts, font tags and animated gifs!

Neil_N · 23/02/15 - 17:05

One thing with mobiles back then, when I first had one about 17/18, because I didn't have many friends, £10.00 of credit used to last me months (it was just the odd "on my way" message). When I met my first boyfriend in 2004 and I was coming up to 20, £5.00 of credit (I switched to Virgin when it was dirt cheap) would last me a while too.

Now, I'm still PAYG but I use a lot of minutes up, forever text and always use the internet!

paulsh1 · 23/02/15 - 18:35

Smart phones,tablets,fast broadband wifi and user friendly websites have moved things on for the better.

Back in 2005 I think I was still using my Time Computers tower pc ,with a CRT monitor and dialup internet.

It took 15 minutes for the pc to load up,then it was hit or miss to connect to the internet.

But I still thought it was brilliant and state of the art!

PunksNotDead · 23/02/15 - 18:39

Digispy forums in 05
LINK

hyperstarsponge · 23/02/15 - 18:42

If you use a lot of internet on pay as you go, You better off on a contact.

itscoldoutside · 23/02/15 - 18:42

PunksNotDead wrote: »

Digispy forums in 05
LINK

I can remember that, credit cards to sign up and I was too young.:(:D

RunawayGroom · 23/02/15 - 18:42

I finally made the switch from the dreamcast to the pc in late 04, so he differences in what i could do was huge.It was probably my favourite ever year on the internet. The best person i ever got to know on the internet i started talking to in 2005, but in general it was my favourite social time i have had on the net. I started my first chat room. Chatting on msn was awesome. Yahoo games was great, yahoo pool especially. Creating ********* was awesome. Ohh and yahoo fight room and kareoke room lol

Phoenix Lazarus · 23/02/15 - 19:20

WiFi still a thing of future, so modem lead and extension you could trip over.

MargMck · 23/02/15 - 19:59

I've worked online since 't'internet' first arrived in the UK. What I remember most is how complicated and, by today's standards, how slow it was to send some stuff. Can recall telling my boss that with a bit of practice I could probably do five projects a day eventually. He was excited! Now it's easy to do 10 times that, because of the software and shortcuts, not my improvement.

jediknight2k1 · 23/02/15 - 20:06

Dial-up modems and paying by the minute until Surftime came out.

Freeserve being the first ISP to offer it I think. Needing an extra phone like if you wanted to use so people could phone.

Neil_N · 23/02/15 - 20:42

hyperstarsponge wrote: »

If you use a lot of internet on pay as you go, You better off on a contact.

I buy bundles. I'm on Tesco - top up £20 get £40 free credit, free texts messages (5000), 150 mins for a fiver and 4GB of internet for fifteen quid.

degsyhufc · 23/02/15 - 20:46

You couldn't really download albums. You could download individual MP3s but they could be all manner of bitrates or versions.

Albums used to come as one large MP3 which you could then edit into seperate tracks.

Gordie1 · 23/02/15 - 20:46

I posted on a band forum and when the london tube bombing happened, the concert was postponed, but loads of us were travelling to london that day, i was on the tube when it happened, we used the forum to say we were all fine, and i even went to the hotel one guy was due to stay in to make sure he was safe.

that was my first "real" positive experience of the net.

Joey_J · 23/02/15 - 20:49

Limewire

Thats where the music was at

fmradiotuner1 · 23/02/15 - 21:10

2005 must have been the year I first got the interent & AOL boradband must have had around 512 - 1 meg down at the time.
It would take hours to download a 350mb TV show or even longer for a 700mb film.
Now TV shows are around 2gb

and films at over 12gb and download in a few hours but come in 1080p. & DTS , Dolby

LightningIguana · 23/02/15 - 21:12

Everyone wanting me to be on MSN and rubbish mySpace pages with terrible bling and gifs.

.512 Virgin broadband, a world away from the one I'm on now.

Just about getting my first laptop, which I still own and which still works, even if it is retired.

zx50 · 23/02/15 - 21:12

Neil_N wrote: »

What can you remember about the internet just ten years ago?

I know this site existed, and was probably still popular as it is. Youtube didn't really come along until the end of the year, and didn't take off until 2006.

Facebook was in it's infancy, and back then it was a case of chat rooms or if you wanted to chat to someone, you would get their addy and have long convo via MSN.

Torrent sites were around, and you could freely download mp3s.

I can't remember there being any/many adverts around back then. I was using eDonkey2000 and KaZaA to download files.

Hey there!

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The Internet in 2005

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