Internet was shit until it got its own VisiCalc: online advertising. After the dotcom bubble it was the only area that held well enough and could take advantage of the newfound aversion to paying for stuff online.
The creation of the World Wide Web and the graphical browser is what really made the Internet explode in popularity. When I came back to college in fall 1994 there were a lot of web sites and search engines to find sites. The ability to edit a text file and add more HTML links made it so easy to use and create.