(Before we dig too far into this, you may want to visit the 56k Modem Emulator, to establish the proper sonic mood. Ah, that beloved squeal.)

A colleague (who is handsome and wise) recently discovered an old Media Metrix report delineating “World Wide Web Audience Ratings” for December 1998. It’s a remarkable study, categorizing thousands of sites and conglomerated web companies.

This thing is like finding election results from 1880; like coming across the original Billboard music chart. It looks familiar, like you should know all of the component elements, but it’s unrecognizable. As though they’re all brands made up for movies.



The Rankings

Home and Work, Combined

We’ll start where the report starts – at those sites most popular when combining home and work visits. (Please see above diagram for clarification.) Before I list them, I want you to try and think up what the top fifty websites were in 1998. Got it?

Yeah, you’re wrong:

AOL.COM 1998 rank: 1; 2010 rank: 3 46 (2010 data via Alexa)

YAHOO.COM 1998: 2; 2010: 3

GEOCITIES.COM 1998: 3; 2010: 1,778

MSN.COM 1998: 4; 2010: 13

NETSCAPE.COM 1998: 5; 2010: 3,676

EXCITE.COM 1998: 6; 2010: 726

LYCOS.COM 1998: 7; 2010: 1,335

MICROSOFT.COM 1998: 8; 2010: 22

BLUEMOUNTAINARTS.COM 1998: 9; 2010: 18,448,258

INFOSEEK SITES 1998: 10; 2010: 663,973

ALTAVISTA SEARCH 1998: 11; 2010: 2069

TRIPOD.COM 1998: 12; 2010: 400

XOOM.COM 1998: 13; 2010: 7,684

ANGELFIRE.COM 1998: 14; 2010: 745

HOTMAIL.COM 1998: 15; 2010: 1,417

AMAZON.COM 1998: 16; 2010: 11

REAL.COM 1998: 17; 2010: 1,324

ZDNET.COM 1998: 18; 2010: 669

HOTBOT.COM 1998: 19; 2010: 21,303

INFOSPACE.COM 1998: 20; 2010: 1,447

EBAY.COM 1998: 21; 2010: 7

DISNEY ONLINE 1998: 22; 2010: 117

SNAP.COM 1998: 23; 2010: 2,486

WEATHER.COM 1998: 24; 2010: 24

ICQ.COM 1998: 25; 2010: 402

BARNES & NOBLE 1998: 26; 2010: 227

SIMPLENET.COM 1998: 27; 2010: 207,614

CNN.COM 1998: 28; 2010: 18

MSNBC.COM 1998: 29; 2010: 750

PATHFINDER.COM 1998: 30; 2010: 28,694

MININGCO.COM 1998: 31; 2010: 1,814,486

DIGITALCITY.COM 1998: 32; 2010: 548,385

ESPN 1998: 33; 2010: 20

LOOKSMART.COM 1998: 34; 2010: 7,350

ETOYS.COM 1998: 35; 2010: 30,376

SONY ONLINE 1998: 36; 2010: 744

BONZI.COM 1998: 37; 2010: 1,379,611

FORTUNECITY.COM 1998: 38; 2010: 3,925

CNET SOFTWARE 1998: 39; 2010: 36

SWITCHBOARD.COM 1998: 40; 2010: 3,375

EARTHLINK.NET 1998: 41; 2010: 146

MAPQUEST.COM 1998: 42; 2010: 56

WARNER BROS. ONLINE 1998: 43; 2010: 783

ATT.NET 1998: 44; 2010: 175

WEBCRAWLER.COM 1998: 45; 2010: 686

GOTO.COM 1998: 46; 2010: 1,171,981

EGGHEAD.COM 1998: 47; 2010: 18,750,018

COMPUSERVE.COM 1998: 48; 2010: 5,445

CDNOW.COM 1998: 49; 2010: 1,663,586

MUSICBLVD.COM 1998: 50; 2010: 3,220,606

Read an analysis of the numbers at Mediaite.

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com