How world’s top 50 websites looked years back. Here is a presentation of how world’s top 50 websites looked years back. Over the years, everything has experienced a change irrespective of fields and areas. As the modern world has changed and along with that people has changed which leads to the change of people’s approach. And amidst these entire changes one thing that has rapidly changed is technology. Technology is a blessing of the modern world and with the passage of years, technology has outgone various changes and many a times the changes are positive and helpful. One of the major changes that technology has faced over the years is throughout websites. There is a huge difference between years back websites and present day websites. Be it usage of div instead of tables or be it in the navigation, breadcrumbs or more, current day websites do varies greatly from the past websites. This difference is not just seen across various different websites but can also be seen by making a comparison between old and new look of the same websites. Website owners try to change the look and field of the website in order to give a fresh look to the site and give a better usability experience for the users. Also the world is changing and top sites need to enhances their look in order to keep in pace with the new websites. Explore this gallery of how world’s top 50 websites looked years back and experience a comparison of past and present in terms of websites’ look and feel.
1) Google – 1998
2) YouTube – 2005
3) Yahoo – 1996
4) Wikipedia – 2001
5) Windows live – 1998
6) linkedin – 2003
7) MSN – 1996
8) WordPress.com – 2004
9) Monster.com - 1996
10) Microsoft.com – 1997
11) Tumbler.com – 2007
12) Apple.com – 1996
13) babylon.com – 1999
14) Craigslist.org – 1999
15) imdb.com – 2000
16) flickr.com – 2004
17) BBC Online – 1996
18) go.com – 1996
19) Ask.com – 1999
20) Zedo.com – 2001
21) cnn.com – 2000
22) adobe.com – 1996
23) aol.com – -1996
24) ESPN – 1999
25) alibaba.com – 2000
26) About.com – 1999
27) godaddy.com – 1999
28) stackoverflow.com – 2000
29) cnet.com – 1996
30) nytimes.com – 1996
31) livejournal.com – 1999
32) weather.com – 1996
33) dailymail.co.uk – 1998
34) ehow.com – 1999
35) deviantart.com – 2000
36) indiatimes.com – 1998
37) Mozilla.org – 1998
38) dropbox.com – 1998
39) clicksor.com – 2004
40) Sciam.com – 1996
41) sourceforge.net – 2000
42) photobucket.com – 2001
43) myspace.com – 1996
44) skype.com – 2003
45) doubleclick.com – 1997
46) yelp.com – 1996
47) rapidshare.com - 2004
48) walmart.com – 1996
49) foxnews.com – 1996
50) Rediff.com – 1998
How worlds top 50 websites looked years back



Ha, Craigslist hasn’t changed much
I just love the DropBox logo
Ironically, Adobe at the time looked like the company with the vision and had the closest design with modern day websites.
The one that stuck out to me there was Skype – they had a Web 2.0 style logo way back when… before it was a buzzword. Oh my.
@luke the logo thing was on my mind. But yeah it is really good how these websites started low and maintained consistency till now and yet growing..
Ah, the old CNet site! “Borrowing” their logo taught me how to make image maps. Fascinating to see this glimpse of the past!
@Rick – Really? wow