The Opera browser has some real heritage behind it, having launched more than 30 years ago in the mid-90s—a time when the internet looked very different to the way it does now (not least because upload and download speeds were a fraction of what we’re enjoying in the modern era).
To celebrate the milestone, Opera is doing something brilliantly engaging: It’s put together a Web Rewind archive site that memorializes some of the best online moments and memes of the last three decades. From the classic modem dialing tone sounds, to MySpace and the top eight friends paradigm, it’s a lot of nostalgic fun.
Whether you lived through these internet ages or not, Web Rewind is a valuable lesson in history and a much-needed antidote to the spam, clutter, and AI slop that dominates so much of the modern day online experience.
Opera is asking for user submissions for memorable moments too, with the authors of the best entries winning a trip to the physics laboratory CERN in Geneva, Switzerland—the original birthplace of the World Wide Web.
An interactive web museum
You’ll find the Web Rewind portal very straightforward to navigate: Just follow the on-screen instructions for which keys to press. Generally, you’ll hold the spacebar to jump between exhibits in this internet museum, and hit the cursor keys to switch between different screens within each exhibit.
As you go, you get sound effects and an audio narration to talk you through what you’re seeing—it’s like having a museum curator walking with you through the history of the web. You can control the audio using the speaker button up in the top right corner, and there are options for switching between languages there too.
Look out for the link icons down in the lower left hand corner too (the icons that look like part of a chain). If you find something that particularly resonates with you, that you’d like to share with others, you can grab the link to the specific page.
The Web Rewind site has been built to be interactive, and there’s something to do on a lot of the pages you’ll come across. When you arrive on the LimeWire page, for example—a look back at the famous MP3 sharing software of the 1990s that had music labels in a panic—you’re able to simulate the experience of downloading a track.
And it’s brilliantly authentic too, down to the last detail: You don’t actually get an MP3, but you do get some error messages and spam pop-ups, which will be familiar to anyone who tried to download music off the web through LimeWire, rather than actually going out and buying the physical media.
Something else you’ll notice is how educational Web Rewind is. With the LimeWire example, you’ll hear about peer-to-peer technology, how it was so revolutionary, and how it changed the way that files were shared on the internet. Even if you didn’t experience these technologies for yourself, you can learn about them.
The site is also great for rediscovering classic internet memes that have most likely faded from your memory by now. Remember Grumpy Cat? Or Overly Attached Girlfriend? It’s easy to lose track of time when browsing through these pages, there’s such a rich selection of web memories to explore.
Getting connected
One of the other Web Rewind exhibits I enjoyed clicking through was the Dial-up Days page. I fondly remember the experience of installing software via floppy disks, and connecting to the internet through a 56k modem—complete with all the whirring and beeping that was involved with establishing a connection.
In those days, getting online involved an archaic piece of technology known as a landline phone (you couldn’t even load WhatsApp on it), and when the internet was connected it meant the phone was out of use—so anyone calling your house would just get the engaged tone. If someone in your home had a call to make, the internet had to be disconnected.
At regular points in your Web Rewind journey, you’ll be taken to an overview screen where you can see all the “artefacts” in the collection. On these screens, you can click back to pages you’ve already visited, or jump ahead to a specific year. The option to just bounce around randomly is always available too.
In the course of my clicking I rediscovered something I’d once known but since forgotten: The Opera browser was the first to bring a proper web experience to mobile phones, back in 2002. It really was a ‘mind blown’ moment back then, being able to load up full web pages on a tiny screen over a painfully slow connection.
While there’s a lot here that might make you yearn for a simpler, more peaceful time, there are some aspects of web browsing that I’m glad we’ve left behind for good. Modern technology means the days of buffering content and not being able to load even the smallest images are now behind us.
Opera wants you to get involved with this internet museum too: Click the submit button that appears in the top right corner, describe your memory in 500 characters (including an image or video if you need to), and you’re in with a chance of that trip to CERN in Switzerland. You’ve got until Friday, March 27, 2026 to make your submission.
You’ll see technology and brand names almost lost to time through Web Rewind, graphical user interfaces that are incredibly dated but also very charming, and much more besides. It’s strange to think how we might look back on the apps, sites, and gadgets of today, once another three decades have passed.
