Almost ten years ago, I started work at a small software company developing web based software for WAP-enabled phones. It was an exciting time, and when the technical director asked me to design and develop a website to support the company’s mobile content catalogue and delivery network, I wasn’t particularly enthused. It didn’t take long, however, to relish my new task, and really love my job. I’d always liked server-side stuff, but here I was, caring about the organisation and presentation of information.
Unfortunately, the company suffered financial problems, and I left in 2004, shortly before the site was taken down. The internet archive’s wayback machine has allowed me to go down memory lane and see the site that I made all those years ago.
The wayback machine has archived over 150 billion pages, dating back to 1996, so there’s a good chance there will be an old version of a site of your choosing. Simply type in the URL in the input and click ‘Take me Back’.
Incidentally, the site used tables for layout, some CSS for typography, colours and element widths, Flash and the Windows Media Player plaugin for previewing polyphonic ringtones. Funny to think how far both websites and mobile phone technology has progressed in the last few years. Technically, the site served ASP pages, with content generated largely from a custom content management system using XML and COM objects.
