Visual Explorer: Net Cafe 1996-2002 Archive Now Available

 February 24, 2023

In collaboration with the Internet Archive, we are excited to announce today that the complete 1996-2002 archive of the incredible television series Net Cafe, hosted by Stewart Cheifet, Jane Wither, and Andrew deVries and chronicling the earliest days of the rise of the modern web, are now available in the Visual Explorer. Made available for viewing on Archive's site nearly two decades ago, we have now made this one-of-a-kind archive of the web's early days "skimmable" via the Visual Explorer's thumbnail interface – allowing you to rapidly see the kinds of visuals and interface metaphors that defined the early web:

Net Cafe was the world's most widely distributed television series covering the Internet revolution during the height of the dot com boom. The series was broadcast throughout the United States and in more than one hundred other countries for six years, from 1996 through 2002. It was hosted by Stewart Cheifet, Jane Wither, and Andrew deVries. The weekly program went behind the scenes of the World Wide Web to meet the people and explore the culture of the new "wired" generation. The series featured Internet tips, a guide to the best web sites, a preview of internet startups, and interviews with the movers and shakers behind the Internet phenomenon. It introduced many new web sites to the public which are now household names such as Yahoo!, Google, and eBay. The series has been recognized for its journalistic excellence, winning a variety of prestigious broadcast awards. It was produced on location at various internet cafes around the Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Note that some shows below may not play correctly in all browsers due to technical issues with the underlying MP4 files. In those cases, you can use the thumbnail grid to get a sense of the broadcast and the timecode(s) of interest and view those directly on the Archive's site via its inline player.