

Was Viaweb first? - rms
http://www.paulgraham.com/first.html

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rms
This guy with an unholy Slashdot ID claims Xerox had one in 1993.
[http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11972&thr...](http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=11972&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&cid=253054)

<http://www2.parc.com/istl/projects/mapdocs/>

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tuukkah
None of the examples given this far match "something like a desktop
application, where the user actually builds things on the server."

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mhb
Why is an inquiry like this voted up?

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marcus
Exactly... no offense pg but who the hell cares. Is this about bragging
rights?

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mrtron
12 points by rms 8 hours ago | 14 comments

It was not posted by pg...

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marcus
I know it wasn't posted by pg, I was referring to the cult of pg in here.

If the same question was asked about any other early web property, no one
would have given it a second look.

~~~
mwmanning
"If the same question was asked about any other early web property, no one
would have given it a second look."

I think that was the reason for posting it here.

~~~
rms
you got it

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jpark
A quick perusal of the WWW'95 (April 1995) shows a whole variety of "web
applications"

Beyond Browsing: Shared Comments, SOAPs, Trails, and On-line Communities

Spectrum: A Web-based tool for describing electronic resources

Using the Web as a Survey Tool: Results from the Second WWW User Survey

I can't find the abstracts for the earlier 2nd WWW conference, but I'm sure
there a bunch of goodies there. And these are only published papers.

The CGI spec was defined and implemented (in NCSA httpd) in the late '93/early
'94 timeframe by Rob McCool. The WHOLE purpose of CGI was to enable people to
create "web applications". It is highly unlikely that there were no other "web
applications" in the 18 months between the birth of CGI and Viaweb,
considering the sheer amount of intellectual horsepower and entrepreneurial
fervor at that time aimed at harnessing the net.

I think the claim is pretty shaky.

That said, you guys were definitely among the early pioneers. You built a
great product and had a great exit. What more could you ask for? :)

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jpark
<http://www.library.ucsf.edu/info/about/ckm/it94paper.html>

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SwellJoe
Nice try, but I believe this was really the first web application:

<http://tinyurl.com/133t>

I remember using it back in '94, on my Amiga 3000. It was a real time saver.

~~~
rms
OK... so that site has a guestbook. I presume that other cites circa 1994 had
guestbooks that allowed clients to modify pages. Were guestbooks web
applications?

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SwellJoe
Don't be ridiculous. A guestbook isn't an application.

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rms
I'll agree that a guestbook doesn't feel worthy of the title application, but
the line between "application" and "not-application" seems arbitrary, unless
there is some other criteria I'm missing.

How complex does a piece of software have to be for it to be an application?

~~~
SwellJoe
I thought it was obvious: It has to have a really big red button.

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rms
So no matter how you define it, the big red button page wins!

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jpark
Also, [http://www.news.com/E-commerce-
turns-10/2100-1023_3-5304683....](http://www.news.com/E-commerce-
turns-10/2100-1023_3-5304683.html)

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henning
Well, among the first for doing it with HTML and HTTP and the interface.

But, don't programmable MUDs date back to the 80s?

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maurycy
Here's recipe for earning a lot of karma: submit all links from
paulgraham.com.

~~~
marcus
But what is the point in getting more karma?

Can you hire engineers and pay them with YC.news karma? When you try to secure
VC funding, do the general partners check what is your karma on YC.news before
they decide whether or not to fund you?

~~~
ivankirigin
You didn't hear?! Hit 20K karma and get invited to a one minute YC interview.
Get started!

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marketer
What about geocities? I vaguely remember using it in 1995 :)

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augustus
Maybe web based email such as hotmail was there earlier?

~~~
brlewis
It appears not. It was commercially launched on July 4, 1996.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail#Development_history>

Founders at Work probably has more details, but my copy is at home.

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spolsky
How about SATAN (1993).

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downer
Although being "first!" is perhaps of historical interest, the idea of a web-
based application is hardly any more original than a million business method
patents that simply add "with a computer!" or "over a network!" or "via the
web!".

Far more interesting is the _way_ they did it.

