Newsweek in 1995: Why the Internet Will Fail

Well, would you look at that. The article did mention what the Internet lacked, at the time: sale systems, search, and popularity; and indeed, market forces did provide.

Looking at the article's conclusion however, it is rather similar to the 2018 HN frontpage news of social-networking-breeding-isolation: perhaps the chap wasn't that far off the mark:

"While the Internet beckons brightly, seductively flashing an icon of knowledge-as-power, this nonplace lures us to surrender our time on earth. A poor substitute it is, this virtual reality where frustration is legion and where–in the holy names of Education and Progress–important aspects of human interactions are relentlessly devalued."