Season 4
Season 4 of Cybercultural is publishing across 2025. Its theme is 'the birth of digital culture' and covers the dot-com period.
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Second Life and the Beginnings of the Metaverse in 1999
After seeing the movie 'The Matrix', Philip Rosedale starts a dot-com company and attempts to build a full-body virtual reality rig. He soon pivots to creating a virtual world on the Web.
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David Bowie’s 1999 Gaming Adventure and Virtual Album
Continuing his exploration of virtual personas, in 1999 David Bowie plays two 3D characters in a game called 'Omikron: The Nomad Soul'. The songs he contributes are later added to his album, Hours.
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From BowieWorld to Facebook: How Online Identity Evolved
Exploring different personas on the web is a widespread trend by the late-1990s. Later, Facebook will neuter online identity, but in 1999 you can invent virtual characters on sites like BowieWorld.
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Google in 1999: Search Engines Escape the Portal Matrix
Like Morpheus in The Matrix, Google gives web users a stark choice in 1999: take the red pill and experience a new world of search quality, or choose the blue pill and stick with the bloated world of portal search.
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Search Engines in 1998, Before Google Takes the Spotlight
Google makes the transition from Stanford project to company over 1998, but it is portals like Yahoo! and portal-wannabes like AltaVista that feature in Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Watch this year.
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1998: How Amazon Conquered Online CD Retailers Like CDnow
At the start of 1998, CDnow and Music Boulevard are the leading online CD shops. Then in June, Amazon branches out from books and begins to sell music on its fast growing e-commerce website.
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Launch of BowieNet and the First Inklings of Social Networks
When BowieNet launches in 1998, it becomes the default online community for David Bowie fans. It also anticipates the social networks that will emerge in the 2000s, like Facebook and Reddit.
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Portals in 1998: The Rise and Fall of Excite and Netcenter
1998 is the year of the portal: Excite, Netscape Netcenter, Yahoo, AOL, MSN and others all competing for eyeballs and trying to be sticky. But with so many portals, some will inevitably fail.
