Nostalgia net: WordArt and dial-up sound honoured in retro internet trend

REMEMBER beautiful WordArt, the dial-up modem noise and chatting on ICQ? These relics of a more innocent age are now captivating gif-crazed bloggers.

Pink clouds, ClipArt and multicoloured fonts are cool again.

REMEMBER beautiful Word Art, that buzzy dial-up modem noise and the awesome people you chatted to on ICQ or MSN Messenger?

Were you around for Windows 95, and were all your artistic needs satisfied by the Microsoft Paint spray can?

Now these sweet relics of a more innocent age have been immortalised in a trend for the old-fashioned internet aesthetic, which has modern bloggers captivated.

Your favourite website as it would have looked on Geocities. Picture: Geocities-izer

While the younger generation is digging that retro vibe, the rest of us will experience a jolt of nostalgia looking at eye-wateringly bright websites and hilarious “Enter pages” (why did they even exist?).

Internet Archaeology has created a YouTube video showing the evolution of social media sites Facebook and MySpace (how’s that going, Justin Timberlake?).

It also has a section devoted to how the internet looked forward to the year 2000, or Y2K.

On the Geocities-izer, you can see all the websites you use now as they would have looked in 1999.

Why on earth did they get rid of ‘Enter’ pages? Picture: Internet Archaeology

This looks pretty cool now. Picture: Tumblr

The cover of the computer software package, Windows 95. June 96 Undated photo /Computers

Graphic designer Cat Frazier, 23, runs a site called Animated Text, in which she reimagines modern online catchphrases in moving 3D text.

Popular blogging platform Tumblr is stuffed with blogs like Vaporwave, where a tagline declares “Technology is overrated”, and old-fashioned Windows imagery is posted alongside an eclectic assortment of anime, gifs and photographics.

Clippy, the animated paperclip that came with Microsoft Word and Excel until 2003, is described on Know Your Meme as “impractical and intrusive ... a subject of mockery among Office users.”

Microsoft Encarta 98 Deluxe Edition CD-ROM. Computer / Software

Clippy - One of Microsoft's failed products, this guy was designed to help you make using your software easier but was like the annoying guest who never went home.

Computer screen image of screensaver created in Paint using Windows 95 software. equipment /Computer/equipment

A member of the Facebook group celebrating Clippy’s demise attacked its useless efforts at assistance, commenting: “I know I’m writing a f-ing letter, you stupid paperclip.”

The New York Times says images from the early web seem attractive only now they are viewed in isolation, without the frustrations that accompanied a 56K modem, adding that the trend is “a reaction to the manicured lawns of Facebook and Twitter and a celebration of the earlier, less sterile (and surveilled) environments that people once inhabited and created online.”

The Printed Internet became one of the most popular blogs of recent years for its parodies of trendy websites, using printouts of logos and lettering, pasted on paper and scanned back in.

It’s old and it’s new, and maybe that’s exactly what we’re all looking for.

Screen shot of Microsoft Money for Windows 95 program. Computer / Software

Computers.Get Wired.Windows '95.19/12/95. /computing