8 years of progress?

Today marks my eighth anniversary at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, providing a convenient excuse to reflect on how much has changed on the Internet scene during that time -- and how much hasn’t.

Many of the changes since April Fool's Day 1996 have been pretty obvious and dramatic. Back then, it was a good thing to be wired; now, in the age of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, it means you’re behind the times. We went from 28.8 dialup connections to President Bush calling for universal broadband access. Netscape went from being the dominant Internet software company to a verb describing something you don't want Microsoft to do to your business.

In other areas, however, it’s not as clear how far we’ve come in eight years, especially where the newspaper industry’s move online is concerned.

1996: We all thought that there was a demand for a single, nationwide news portal pulling together the best stories from hundreds of different newspapers. The industry bought into it big time, with major publishers forming a consortium to launch New Century Network. Alas, it collapsed because of philosophical disagreementsbetween all those partners.

2004: Google News is a big hit. Looks like we might have been right.

1996: “Push” technology was starting to shape up as a Next Big Thing. It was the cover story in the March 1997 issue of Wired magazine with the memorable hypeline “Kiss your browser goodbye: The radical future of media beyond the Web.” Instead of going to the bother of visiting your favorite Web site, it would send updates to software right on your computer. Alas, it turned out that very few people actually wanted a screensaver that flashed news bulletins at them all day.

2004: RSS feeds do something similar – and people actually seem to like these.

1996: Personal home pages gave everyone with something to say (and many others) a forum for publishing to the entire world.

2004: Blogs. ‘Nuff said.

1996: Newspaper publishers were desperately looking for a viable business model to support their online operations. Everyone had high hopes about selling advertising.

2004: Newspaper publishers are still looking for a viable business model to support their online operations. Everyone has high hopes about registration as a way to sell more useful advertising.