Cover --
Copyright --
Dedication --
Contents at a Glance --
Contents --
Foreword --
About the Author --
About the Technical Reviewer --
Preface --
Acknowledgments --
Introduction --
Chapter 1 Looking Back: Where Did it all Begin? --
In the Beginning --
Lo! --
Chapter 2 In the Money --
The First Online Content --
The First Information Superhighway --
Chapter 3 Making Contact with CompuServe --
Chapter 4 The Source --
Chapter 5 Dis-content and Conflict --
Videotex --
Growing Pains at The Source --
Customer Loyalty and Growth --
Usenet Newsgroups --
Microcomputer Bulletin Boards --
Chapter 6 Evolution --
Games --
Pirate Software --
Online Gaming --
Early File Sharing and User Publishing --
Chat --
Special-Interest Groups --
CompuServe Forums --
Chapter 7 Online Experiments --
Gateways --
New Kids on the Block --
Chapter 8 Trials and Errors --
Something Old, Nothing New --
Newspapers and Newsletters Online --
Consumer Movement --
Encyclopedias Online --
More Experiments --
Meanwhile, Back at the ARPA Ranch --
Chapter 9 The Second Wave --
DELPHI --
More Regional Online Services --
The First Dot-Com Bust --
GEnie --
AOL DNA, Part1 --
AOL DNA, Part 2: Gameline and Control Video Corporation --
AOL DNA, Part3: Playnet --
Chapter 10 AOL Gestation --
Chapter 11 The Third Wave --
American People/Link (Plink) --
BIX (Byte Information eXchange) --
USA Today Sports Center --
The WELL --
Quantum Link (Q-Link) --
Trin-what? --
Chapter 12 In with the New, Out with the Old --
Great Product, Great Customers-Where's the Money? --
Great Expectations --
The Entrepreneur Who Wouldn't Go Away, Redux --
AppleLink-Personal Edition --
PC-Link --
Sour Apples --
The Competition Wakes --
Front Ends --
Another Online Casualty --
Chapter 13 AOL Evolves: Expansion, Integration, and Success --
Independence --
Promenade --
The Great Commingling --
AOL for PCs: DOS and Windows --
Planning Ahead --
Marketing AOL --
Chapter 14 Prodigy: The Flat-Rate Pioneer Who Just Didn't Get it --
In the Beginning --
Videotex Again? --
New & Improved --
Online Advertising? --
Prodigy Call Home --
Censored! --
"Of Course You Realize ... This Means War!" --
No, Not Spyware! --
"Didn't Prodigy Invent the Internet?" --
Files, Anyone? --
Turning On the Meter --
Chat, at Last --
Chapter 15 Moving to the Net --
International Expansion --
Apple Replay --
Opening Up the Internet --
Online Services and the Internet --
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back --
Where Are They Now? --
Afterword: Omissions, Additions, and Corrections --
Appendix A Online Timeline --
Appendix B Bibliography --
Appendix C Founders --
Index.

"Was there an Internet before the Web? Who built it, and why? Do you want to know the real story behind the Internet? Are you curious as to who created all this stuff, and the business structure behind the online world? If so, you've come to the right place! Learn where, when, how and why the Internet came Into being, and exactly what hundreds of thousands of people were doing online before the Web. See who was behind it all, and what inspired them. The real stories are all here: the great businesses, colossal blunders, and great showmanship that led up to the Net and the Web-and beyond. turning your perception of the Web and the people who created it upside down."--Jacket.