Websites that have been online for almost 20 years...

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The Internet exists for a while now, but has only become widely used in the 90s (according to Wikipedia). As you probably can guess, websites looked much different in the 90s than what they look like today, so we decided to show you the evolution of various websites that have been online since the very beginning of the popular web, all this thanks to the Way Back Machine.

AMAZON

As you can see, Amazon didn't change that much in the first 10 years but has recently refreshed its look, refining its simple design. 

APPLE

Even in its websites, Apple has always been ahead of the pack design-wise.

As you can see, their products have always been the main focus of their site, whether it's in the 90s or today. You can also see that they've always used a pure and simple design.

GOOGLE

I believe they've got the simplest and most efficient website. Yes I know, Google doesn't really have any products to sell, but as you all know, probably a day doesn't go by where you don't use their search engine. Even in 1998, they were all about simplicity. You can also notice the subtle changes in Google's logo.

HOTMAIL

Hotmail has been allowing us to create free e-mails since their beginnings. Chances are, you have (or used to have) a hotmail account. You can notice the smooth transition from Hotmail to Windows Live to finally be renamed Outlook. But even though they changed names, it's still the same product at the same URL.

MICROSOFT

This is probably the company that's made the greatest leaps design-wise. They've gone from a boring, technical website to a pure, product-oriented website.

The moral of this story: you have to learn to adapt. The recent arrival of responsive design has changed dramatically the way we view and build websites. One emerging trend you can notice is simplicity. Websites today aren't as crammed with content as they used to and navigation is much easier (simpler menus, search engines, etc.).

What do you think about how these sites evolved?