By default Mosaic's background was gray, and most people didn't change it. (Using #x0000ff was reasonable for links on this gray background.)
White became the default background for more sophisticated sites in 1996. The first time I saw Yahoo and Amazon they had gray (i.e. probably no) background color.
We got so used to these gray web pages that for a few months I thought it was a crazy idea to make websites with white backgrounds-- that pages so bright would hurt people's eyes. Then I realized the real culprit was the default unvisited link color.
White became the default background for more sophisticated sites in 1996. The first time I saw Yahoo and Amazon they had gray (i.e. probably no) background color.
http://battellemedia.com/images/1995-tm.jpg
(Notice how small it is too.)
We got so used to these gray web pages that for a few months I thought it was a crazy idea to make websites with white backgrounds-- that pages so bright would hurt people's eyes. Then I realized the real culprit was the default unvisited link color.