I agree - commercialism was around .. but not many companies really understood how to monetise the web in the early / mid nineties. For example, Bill Gates famously didn't think the Internet would catch on, and assumed that MSN would be most people's choice of walled-garden alternative.
The WWW was just another application for the Internet (along with Gopher / FTP / Usenet / IRC) - and therefore wasn't seen as the Internet.
Because the technology was relatively new, I think people were interested in taking risks - user expectations hadn't been set in stone, and innovation could be less about iteration and more about being bold / daring.
The WWW was just another application for the Internet (along with Gopher / FTP / Usenet / IRC) - and therefore wasn't seen as the Internet.
Because the technology was relatively new, I think people were interested in taking risks - user expectations hadn't been set in stone, and innovation could be less about iteration and more about being bold / daring.