Currently, we search for answers to questions on Google, we use e-mail with Gmail, we relax with YouTube, and we use Messenger, WhatsApp and Twitter to communicate with the world. At the turn of the 1990s and 2000s, the world looked completely different. It’s hard to believe how far the Polish Internet has come since the creation of the first websites on the Vistula River.
The beginnings of www and the first internet portal
The connection of the building of the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw to the European network and the sending of the first e-mail in 1991 are considered the symbolic beginning of the Internet in Poland. At that time, however, the Polish network was extremely strongly associated with the academic community and the average Kowalski did not have access to it anyway. For the next several months, the Internet in Poland was an academic network, available to scientists through NASK (Research and Academic Computer Network), which was in charge of the .pl domain registry. NASK was established at the University of Warsaw, and only later evolved into an independent research institute.
The breakthrough came at the end of 1994 and in 1995, when the first commercial lines entered the market. A year later, Telekomunikacja Polska made available the so-called dial-up connection (i.e. via a dial-up modem), which turned out to be a complete revolution. In response to the growing number of Internet users, places where Poles could spend some time – Internet portals – began to appear. The first one was Wirtualna Polska, which was officially launched in March 1995 at the address www.wp.cnt.pl (today it moves to the current address from 1998 www.wp.pl). The website was created by Leszek Bogdanowicz, Marek Borzestowski, Jacek Kawalec and Damian Woźniak at the Gdańsk University of Technology, and their goal was to catalog and position websites available on the Polish Internet. So it can be said that WP was the precursor of the Internet search engine from the beginning. As a side note – Google, today a global giant in this industry, took its first steps only 3.5 years later.
wp.cnt.pl in November 1996 photo: screenshot from the web.archive.org database
It is not difficult to get such an impression looking at the archive of the website from November 1996. The central part of the page, just below the logotype, is the search box. Below, there were catalogs of websites divided into thematic sections (including “Business and Economy”, “Computers and Networks” or “Media and Information”). Through links, we could search for, for example, the addresses of Internet cafes in our city, check the timetable or move to one of the Internet clubs – e.g. Klub Młodych Cyberholiks, which advertised itself as the first “club for Internet infected” in Poland. Today, such places associating Internet enthusiasts only bring a smile to your face.
One of the most nostalgic tidbits was The Perpetual WWW Chart, which launched in September 1996. The websites of RMF FM, Telewizja Polska and Czas Na EB stood on the podium of the November edition. Delphi Super Page won the 1996 annual listing.
The popularity of the Internet and the number of its users in Poland is growing month by month. This is clearly visible after the fourth edition of the ‘Wprost’ and Wirtualna Polska charts. Since February, the number of voters for the best Polish websites has increased by over one hundred percent. The April NLP listings show that Internet users are most appreciated by information and service websites, as well as websites devoted to specific thematic issues, organizations and fan clubs
he wrote
Mail, chat, weather and news. Everything in one place
The popularity of Wirtualna Polska meant that similar portals quickly began to appear on the Internet. In June 1996, the OptimusNet service (later renamed Onet) was made available, which – like WP – at the beginning was only a website directory. Over time, however, these websites began to turn into information portals. In addition to current information from the world, they offered more and more side functions. In 1999, Interia and O2 joined this group, which started as providers of e-mail, which was rapidly gaining in popularity, and after a few months turned into Internet portals.
OptimusNet in February 1997 photo: screenshot from the web.archive.org database
The year 2000 turned out to be the time of a real flood of all kinds of portals. In addition to WP, OptimusNet, Interia and O2, which still exist today, there are also e.g. Internetia.pl (from Netia), Poland.com, Portal.pl and Ahoj. Most of them wanted to grow on the basis of the popularity of such places on the web, but after a few or a dozen or so months they stood on the verge of bankruptcy. At the same time, more and more websites appeared on the web, which initially were only digital editions of paper newspapers, but slowly evolved into separate information services. In 2001, the Gazeta.pl portal was launched, which had previously operated for several years as a digital information website of “Gazeta Wyborcza”.
Directories and search engines have become the basis for the creation of portals. This happened with WP and OptimusNet. These special pages drove traffic to other sites on their own for a long time. In 1996, the popular Chipa website was launched, then Entera, and in autumn 1999, the computer industry portal IDG.pl. A real flood of portals took place in Poland, however, only in 2000. Arena (took over the famous search engine from ICM), Hoga, Interia.pl (run by RMF FM radio), Internetia.pl (Netia), YoYo, Poland.com and Portal.pl, and Ahoj, which has already gone bankrupt. They significantly enriched the Polish Internet and made it a place worth visiting. The most important thing, however, is that thanks to their actions, the Polish Internet has become more popular. According to research conducted by several analytical companies, over 3 million citizens already have access to the Internet at work, school and at home
he wrote in September
Interia in May 2000 photo: screenshot from the web.archive.org database
Chat with strangers online. Several themes to choose from
In 1999 and at the beginning of the 2000s, the basis for the operation of Internet portals was a number of additions, the purpose of which was to keep the Internet user with them. First of all, more and more popular e-mail boxes appeared. Anyone could set up e-mail accounts in one of the popular Internet portals, and mailboxes with basic capacity were free. At that time, it was actually the best option for communication – mainly private, but sometimes also business. After all, today’s wildly popular Gmail debuted only in 2004, and for the first three years it functioned in the invitation system. No wonder that many people still have their unique e-mail addresses in the domain of one of the popular portals in Poland.
In addition to e-mail, there were also such extras as discussion forums, weather forecasts, stock quotes and TV programmes. The turn of the 20th and 21st centuries is also a huge boom for virtual cafes and chat rooms, i.e. meeting places on the Internet at that time. They made it possible to join one of the most often several discussion rooms (so-called chat rooms), each of which discusses a different topic. Poles quickly fell in love with the possibility of chatting and talked for hours – often with strangers – on various topics. However, it was an important breath of modernity and a unique window on the world.
In May 2000, a ranking of the best cafes was made, led by those run by Internet portals – wp.online.pl, kawiarenka.wp.pl and chat.onet.pl. Their great advantage was not only ease of use and the ability to open the chat in a browser window, but also no need to re-register. Having an account in the e-mail of a given portal, it was possible to log into the chat rooms with the same account. Today, the popularity of virtual cafes may be surprising, but back then they were the first window to the world.
Source: Gazeta
Mabel is a talented author and journalist with a passion for all things technology. As an experienced writer for the 247 News Agency, she has established a reputation for her in-depth reporting and expert analysis on the latest developments in the tech industry.
