Evolution of a Home Page [con't]
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1995
July 16, 1995 < 400 sites
- The oldest known version of the "webinfo" directory, then named Webmaster's Reference Desk, now known as WebReference.com. Uses tables, which were de rigueur at the time, and has no logo, just nav buttons to the other parts of my home page (poetry, pictures of pets, etc.).
- July 31, 1995 415 sites
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An expanded version of the previous page. I changed the name a number of times, and arrived at the Webmaster Reference Library, going for that one-to-one personalization. Discovered Alan Richmond's fine WDVL, then with 1,100 sites and two years old (now owned by Jupitermedia Corporation).
Sep. 27, 1995 - 550 sites
- Ditched the table in this version circa September 1995. It's a humble little page, with links to other pages of links and some of my own articles. Still part of my home page. It uses HTML 2, and is readable by all browsers.
- Nov. 25, 1995
- Decided to go ".com" and bought a new domain name, webreference.com.
Nov. 30, 1995 - 630 sites
- New logo, a spider-like creature with interlocking legs. Have some initial awards and am soliciting feedback here. Start working with Robert Peyser on site (future partner).
Dec. 11, 1995 - 690 sites
- Switch to domain name webreference.com. In anticipation of the press making screen shots of our site, we created a large "webreference.com" banner and put it at the top of our page. This actually paid off and it was seen in a few magazines. This version used a minimalist splash page approach.
Dec. 30, 1995 - 700 sites - 5 awards
- Our Zen period. We had some fun brainstorming in the early days, and this version is the result of one of our more creative sessions. We thought "candy" was like freebies or goodies, and invited people to "yak bak" and read about the site's "lore." Note the graphics-heavy treatment, and graphical text versions of the spider heads. The second page instructs people to "BEGIN HERE" and "GO THERE" and finally "BE HERE NOW." This page went to a randomly generated Zen Koan. Ohhhhmmmm.
