Closing Out the Web Year
By Dale Dougherty
This was a very good Web year, for a change.
We may remember 1998 as the year in which we stopped using the term "Web year"
to describe new Web developments and trends that have a three-month life cycle.
The Web year and the calendar year are converging now that the Web is starting
to mature and the pace of change is slowing. Just as Disneyland closed down
an old favorite, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, which was no longer seen as such a
wild ride, we can close out my favorite Web year.
A Web year captured the idea that what you learned three months ago about
the Web might not be relevant today. A Web year had its own seasonal cycle
of birth and destruction, opening up new possibilities and closing them off
in short order to pursue something else. The Web year never really had closure.
Netscape set the pace originally. A Web year came to be defined by a browser-release
life cycle. When Netscape began releasing beta versions of its browser in
rapid succession, it blew off the traditional practice of software companies
producing a major release once a year.
Every couple of months, most of Netscape's users went from one beta version
to the next, ignoring the normal path of upgrading to a final release. Users
wanted the latest features first, which gave them some glimpse of the future
of the Web. They were willing to devise workarounds for problems they hoped
would last only until the next newest beta release.
