Internet interests and entertains in '95

December 29, 1995
Web posted at: 2:45 p.m. EST

From Correspondent Brian Nelson

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Hollywood made a movie about it. Congress devoted hearings to it. Business invested in it. And a lot of people asked, "What is it?"

1995 was the year of the Internet, the anarchic, worldwide computer network. Once the playground of geeks and the computer intelligentsia, this year it became a consumer commodity.

And consumers came to expect anything and everything on the Internet. Internet aficionados used the Internet to exchange resumes, interview for jobs, and hold real-time conversations with no long-distance charge.

A death row inmate used the Internet to appeal to the world for clemency.

"I am not a murderer," Girvies Davis proclaimed. "And I can't repent for something I have not done." Despite the appeal, Davis was executed.

In 1995, entire towns discovered the Internet. Blacksburg, Virginia put much of its commerce, government and social exchange online with its "electronic village."

All the major television networks put some measure of their programming on the World Wide Web. The U.S. government turned to the Internet to educate Americans about the difficult peacekeeping operation in Bosnia.

Not all the news was good news on the Net. In Congress, some expressed shock at seeing photos of unregulated pornography on the Internet. There were also disturbing reports of children lured from home by online invitations from strangers.

On Wall Street, the Internet triggered a corporate feeding frenzy.

Netscape, a young software company that makes a popular browser for the Internet, issued a public stock offering with astounding success.

Microsoft was also on top of the world, releasing its Windows '95 in the splashiest software product launch ever. Sales immediately soared for the new operating system designed for 80 percent of the world's personal computers.

But by December, Microsoft admitted its vaunted business acumen failed to anticipate the power of the Internet at a time when computing was migrating to networks like the Internet and migrating to software language that no longer belonged to Microsoft alone.

Ultimately, Microsoft gave in by leasing a competing software, a highly-touted universal programming language called Java, from Sun Microsystems.

By the end of 1995, Most 10-year olds still had only passing acquaintance with computers, prompting a presidential advisory council to deliver a call to arms.

By the year 2000, the council said, all kindergarten through 12th grade schools should have at least one classroom and 25 computers hooking America's school children to the Internet, public and private networks, and to satellite and wireless technologies.

Responding to complaints that the Internet is only for the affluent, Oracle Software CEO Larry Ellison announced plans to unveil a $500 computer in 1996.

With computer prices on the rise, plans for a low-cost path to the information superhighway could be the biggest Internet story of the year.

Internet interests and entertains in '95

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