What's the oldest website that's still alive that you've found?

134 points · 85 comments · view on lemmy.world

85 Comments

SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de · 117 pts · 259d (2 replies)
mech@feddit.org · 14 pts · 259d

Neat. It even includes a table of content for the web.
https://info.cern.ch/hypertext/DataSources/bySubject/Overview.html

Treczoks@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 259d

I remember visiting that site from an Arena browser on a remote X-Windows session. It was back when that site was still hosted on Tims NeXT cube on his desk.

slazer2au@lemmy.world · 38 pts · 259d (18 replies)

I give you Warren Buffets company website.
https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/

The domain was purchased in 1996 It looks like they never updated the layout since.

foodandart@lemmy.zip · 30 pts · 259d (7 replies)

I just went through and checked out the site and hit a bunch of the links.. Honestly, with the nature of the data, there really is no reason to have more than the basics. Also, think of what Berkshire Hathaway is about and as far as maximizing everything that they can for the stake and stock-holders, it makes sense. Focus on the investment essentials, not the window dressing online.

I wish more businesses were oriented this way.

bleistift2@sopuli.xyz · 12 pts · 259d (6 replies)

it has taken on a life of its' own

That’s an apostrophe mistake I haven’t seen before.

Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 259d

There is an it. And then there's another it. And some more its, perhaps.
I don't know what the life of their own is, though. I am also not sure if I do want to know.

But rest assured: It was surely not a mistake.
The its are coming. I, four one, welcome our it overlords!

foodandart@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 259d (1 reply)

Hmmm. Interesting..

bleistift2@sopuli.xyz · 4 pts · 259d

darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 259d
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corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 259d

it

Its'

Yep. One appears plural.

0ops@piefed.zip · 1 pts · 259d

Plural and possessive? Which doesn't make sense. Idk

chunes@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 259d (2 replies)

unironically the best corporate site I've ever seen.

givesomefucks@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 259d

Straight up hard coding in a Geico ad is a strong choice...

I wonder if they change it or Buffet is still getting 1996 page view numbers on a perpetual contract?

CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 6 pts · 259d

Which is kind of the general vibe of BH. They've never bought the hype, and have kept going with "boring but practical".

Zak@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 259d (2 replies)

There's an ad on it, which gets past my adblocker since it's a simple hardcoded link and logo.

slazer2au@lemmy.world · 16 pts · 259d (1 reply)

How ads should be. Simple, non tracking.

Zak@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 259d

I notice the page does have Google Analytics, which is the only thing that did get blocked.

kip@piefed.zip · 7 pts · 259d (2 replies)

If you have any comments about our WEB page, you can write us at the address shown above

i love this part, reads like oh yeah well what if you do wanna tell us about our WEB page you fuckin NERD

slazer2au@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 259d (1 reply)

I like to think they got too many email along the lines of

Sign up with our SEO plan and we will drive up engagement to your site and increase user retention time using the latest technology of (insert buzzword of the day, synthetic testing, machine learning, blockchain, native cloud, hybrid cloud, web2.0 , web3.0, etc).

kip@piefed.zip · 3 pts · 259d

dear mr buffet, find enclosed a sample of big dick power pills as a gesture of good will

that's why he makes the big bucks

AlexisFR@jlai.lu · 2 pts · 258d

All the visible content and the copyright is up to date at least!

Morphite88@thelemmy.club · 35 pts · 259d (4 replies)
fargeol@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 259d

Relevant XKCD : https://xkcd.com/855/

4grams@awful.systems · 7 pts · 258d

Best site on the internet. I was so worried when flash died, big sigh of relief when they went html5.

astanix@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 258d

The best place to test speakers

sanguinepar@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 258d

Makes me so happy that that's still going.

MisterNeon@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 259d (2 replies)

Everybody get up, it's time to slam now! We got a real jam goin' down now!

Welcome to the Space Jam

Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 259d

THAT'S what I was looking for!

chtk@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 259d

Relevant Red Letter Media short film: The Great Space Jam.

ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com · 23 pts · 259d (6 replies)

https://www.heavensgate.com/

The website of that big suicide cult. I don't know how old the site actually is but it's very 90s.

AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today · 18 pts · 259d

Fun fact, back in 2018 I emailed them asking if someone would take over once they were not able to have that responsibility, and if so, who. They replied the next day, and just said (copy and pasted from that email):

Yes, it will be.  You would not know them.

khannie@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 259d (4 replies)

I wonder who's still paying for it.

Zagam@piefed.social · 15 pts · 259d (3 replies)

If I remember right, there's one dude that "stayed behind" to keep it up and running.

CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 14 pts · 259d (2 replies)

Uh-huh. What a sacrifice. /s

Zagam@piefed.social · 21 pts · 259d (1 reply)

In fairness, he may be the smartest of the bunch.

khannie@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 259d

f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz · 19 pts · 259d (1 reply)

GameFAQs.com launched November 5, 1995, although it didn't have that name or URL until 1996.

GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 259d

I just used them last week for a walkthrough on some old GB games I haven't played in 20 years.

Kolanaki@pawb.social · 15 pts · 259d (1 reply)
843563115848@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 258d

I remember using telnet to connect to that site so I could run a browser in the session because I didn't have a browser on my computer for some reason. Maybe this was before we had access to browsers.

dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 258d (1 reply)

Webtender - An On-Line Bartender.

The Webtender web site including, but not limited to the collection of recipes, web links and drinking games, as well as graphics and layout, is Copyright © 1995-2025, The Webtender/Pål Løberg unless stated otherwise.

https://www.webtender.com/info/c.html

Not only is it 30 years old, but it has searching built-in since at least 1997, if not the whole time. This puts it in a very special class: first-generation server-side web applications. Looks like it's still rocking cgi-bin.

chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 258d

Wow! I’ve been using the internet since 1995 and I’ve never heard of this site. Thanks! I’m actually interested in learning about mixing drinks!

Oaksey@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 259d (4 replies)

Honourable mention:
https://homestarrunner.com/

Baggie@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 258d (1 reply)

Homestarrunner.net - "It's dot com!"

ouRKaoS@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 258d

...Cut!

rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 258d

Their last big cartoon came out seven months ago, and it was a big celebration of the idea of going back to playing on individual websites instead of just being fed the same handful of social media crap.

Emulated Flash version on the h*r site - YouTube video version

londos@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 258d
wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 259d

https://netbsd.org/ registered March 1994

https://perdu.com/ registered June 1996.

Tudsamfa@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 259d (2 replies)

No idea why this is the 3rd time this has come up now, but I just learned this year that an anti "barney the dinosaur" webpage is among the oldest still active ones, where you can shoot and stab him.

Hate for children's media for being... for children has really come a long way. Now we hate them for legitimate reasons, like peppa pig for being bloody monarchists and Bluey for being Australian.

rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 258d (1 reply)

Holy crap! I played with that Barney page for hours back in '95. I had no idea it was still up and running!!

Dasus@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 257d

I just played for the first time ever.

Realistic af. Even got the older wounds bleeding

azimir@lemmy.ml · 11 pts · 259d (3 replies)

Peter's The Evil Overlord List is a treasure of the long before times: http://eviloverlord.com/

Copyright 1997

"The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord"

Mandatory reading for anyone trying to be an Evil Overlord.

showmeyourkizinti@startrek.website · 10 pts · 259d (2 replies)

"I will not grow a goatee. In the old days they made you look diabolic. Now they just make you look like a disaffected member of Generation X." - This site is so old Gen X were still surly youths when it was written.

Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 259d

Love that site!

azimir@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 258d

And now we're surly adults! No goatee anymore, though. They itch too much.

CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 9 pts · 259d (6 replies)

Does SDF count? It's been going since 1987. Obviously the Lemmy instance is newer, and it's stretching the definition of website a bit.

JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 259d (5 replies)

You ask as if people know what SDF is.

CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 6 pts · 259d (2 replies)

Since it's my instance and you can probably click to it through my username, I felt like a link would be overkill. But: www.sdf.org.

That was honestly kind of rhetorical, too. It's been something you could connect to since the 80's, and it's still an everyday part of my life, which is related enough to mention even if OP wouldn't call that a website.

njm1314@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 259d (1 reply)

That didn't really answer the implied question.

CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org · 3 pts · 258d

Oh. It's a foundation that provided and provides free access to the new and exciting technology of the INTERNET. The most popular thing now seems the be shell connections to machines running historical OS's like Unix. There's also Gopher and dialup and an internet radio station and a bunch of other services. Lemmy isn't even listed on the main site, but obviously it still is online.

Beyond that I have to admit I'm new and don't know it all. The foundation's website itself feels like a mix of a museum exhibit and an actual active front page.

osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org · 5 pts · 259d (1 reply)

Super Dimension Fortress, obviously

https://files.catbox.moe/b7sweb.jpg

Strobelt@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 258d

MAKUROSU!

pyria@kbin.melroy.org · 8 pts · 258d
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HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club · 8 pts · 259d (2 replies)

https://zorotl.com/

The official page for the alien in the "I'm Blue" music video.

cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 258d

You blew my mind. I had no idea this didn't originate from Eiffel 65

AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 258d

He wants be be be far away-ay-ay, so he can be be be there at home. And he can see see see you again, oh his native land.

Pazintach@discuss.tchncs.de · 6 pts · 259d

Lost Souls Domain

It's surely one of the first sites that I know and use, and it's still alive. I think it's from the 90s. (Looked it up again, their earliest visitor count starts at 1997)

Later we have Metal Archives, but I think Lost Souls Domain was the first website where you look for Metal music informations.

Tuuktuuk@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 259d (1 reply)

The oldest one I regularly use is this one: https://web.archive.org/web/19961108115333/http://www.kela.fi/

It's the Finnish state organ for giving people their welfare benefits and operating the national health insurance system. So, if you get a child, you get an amount of money per month from Kela for having a child. (Because they want the population to grow).
Or, if you end up unemployed for a longer time, it's Kela that will pay your unemployment benefits.
Of if you break your leg, it's Kela that pays for your hospital care. I don't know how many forms I've already filled on their website :D

But yeah, the site's been around for a while now.

CorneliusTalmadge@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 259d

The modern version looks ass.

bleistift2@sopuli.xyz · 6 pts · 259d

I recently had to dig deeper into Regex than I thought one could dig into Regex and found this website that claims it’s from 2003: https://www.regular-expressions.info/

AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 259d

theguyintheglass.com (about the poem) was last updated on 1998-10-03 and created on 1997-12-25 according to the footer.

843563115848@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 258d (2 replies)

http://thebear.org/

This still exists. It's Grateful Dead related.

I don't know how to find any date info on it though, sorry.

OriginalUsername7@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 258d (1 reply)

Looks like it was registered in 1998.

https://www.whois.com/whois/thebear.org

stevedice@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 257d

That means Google is older.

BurgerBaron@piefed.social · 5 pts · 259d

http://www.kaillera.com/

This is still operational. Early middleware for online multiplayer in video game emulators. I'm surprised to see a few still use it.

Edit: 2001

some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 259d

https://milk.com/

1994, and still quite active

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 258d (1 reply)

My MySpace page. Has ALL the animated dancing banana GIFs you could ever want.

ObM@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 258d

It’s nothing if it doesn’t have a yellow and black sign of a road worker scratching his butt.

toynbee@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 258d

Sluggy Freelance and Schlock Mercenary have both been around a while and both have (or had, when I still had time to read webcomics) stellar reputations for reliability.

I was going to mention User Friendly, but sadly that appears to be down. I think it was last time I checked, too, so I'm guessing it's a lost cause.

bitchkat@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 258d

I have a website that has been up since 1995. I haven't updated in 20 years or so.

ace_garp@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 259d

Yahoo.com always comes to mind for these.

March 1994

AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 258d

For websites I actually use, even if just every once in while:

Shadowlord Inc.

The website, according to it and wikifur was founded in 1999 ( allegedly September 23rd according to the website ).

If you like things like transformation scenes in media, this is a site for you. Still being updated to this day. Does have some 18+ stuff, but you'll know right away that it is because they have the thumbnail for that clip tell you it's "R 18+ RESTRICTED".

Edit: just found out you need an account to access restricted R 18+ content... So to you'll be safe enough from that content.

VirtigoMommy@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 258d (1 reply)

Oliviatremorcontrol.com

No idea the year but it’s a band website that still has Web 1.0 vibes

wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 258d

Registered 2002

FigMcLargeHuge@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 259d

www.crazyguyonabike.com is an old one that is still running.

odseey@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 258d

serebii.net is one of those sites that surprises me that not only its still up, but also being regularly updated.