What popular websites looked like in the 1990s

We've been hosting websites since 1996. In that time, we've seen web design trends come and go, and sometimes come back again (but mainly go!). With that in mind, we're casting our minds back to when Tibus was the new kid on the block.

Posted on 11 March 2015 - net
Tibus BY Tibus

We've been hosting websites since 1996. In that time, we've seen web design trends come and go, and sometimes come back again (but mainly go!).

With that in mind, we're casting our minds back to when Tibus was the new kid on the block. Come to think of it, most things were new kids on the block in internet terms in those days.

You can't beat a bit of nostaliga, can you? So, without further ado, here is a look back at some popular websites of the current day as they looked in the 1990s.

BBC 

BBC website 1990s

Now the UK's most visited news site, the BBC hadn't quite grasped how the internet could work for them as a news organisation in the 1990s.

Google

Google website 1990s 

Fair play to Google. They hadn't quite got their typeface selection right, but the essence of the branding and the web design has stood the test of time from this beta version in 1999.

Apple

Apple website 1990s

Yes, back in 1997 the Apple website wasn't quite the slick ecommerce machine we know today. In fact, it is a world away from their current website in nearly every way.

Amazon

Amazon website 1990s

Design-wise, Amazon's website isn't a million miles away from the present. But the presence of Shania Twain's Come On Over at the top of the album chart dates this to 1999!

Guardian

The Guardian website 1990s

Much like the BBC, the Guardian was also yet to fully establish what the emergence of the internet meant for its business. There was a button pointing to some selected articles, but priority is given to some university research ratings and its recruitment section.

eBay

eBay website 1990s

A diecast Hummer was among the featured products on the homepage of ebay.co.uk in 1999.

Yahoo

Yahoo website 1990s

With Google still in beta, Yahoo was the place for all the cool 'Yahooligans' to do their internet searches.

Tibus

Tibus 1990s website

Well, it wouldn't really be fair to show all those other sites without also giving you a glimpse of what we were up to at the time. Back then we were The Internet Business (before shortening to Tibus).