Snapshot: Viaweb, June 1998

In 1998, I had made an effort to do the whole "once a day, learn a random new word from the dictionary". I did that for exactly one day. The one word I learned was "impecunious." Up until now, I've never, ever, seen or heard that word used.

So in 1998, independent, near simultaneous events (Viaweb being acquired, and me learning a single word) were set in motion that would culminate 14 years later in me reading for the first time an actual legitimate use of that word, resulting in a very self-satisfied grin. Consider my day made.

It means "poor" btw.

Love it.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artyom

Alas, I am too young to remember fascinating parts of Internet history like this one.

But I do remember the hesitancy to use personal names on the public Internet. If we could tell our 1998 selves about the modern "personal branding" craze our old selves would never believe it.

[1]http://ycombinator.com/viaweb/se.html

I do wish the test drive worked though. It'd be great to be able to really test it out in its original form!

PG, if you don't mind me asking a couple of questions (or point me to the answers if they are already available elsewhere)... how many man hours do you think went into the project (MVP and maintenance)? And how did you come to start developing it? Was it an original idea at the time or were you aware of other online store builders and decided you could do a better job? When did it all start?

    "The public should always be wondering how 
    it is possible to give so much for the money."
    — Henry Ford

In addition to his work in randomness, Dr. Blackwell has also developed pioneering techniques for rapid mass deletion of potentially critical information. His original work on /usr directories at Harvard has successfully been applied to IP addresses, and also, with the assistance of his wife Laurie, to human hair (see illustration).

"It's not a Flowbie!" said Dr. Blackwell. "They're the very same kind of clippers that actual barbers use."

I salute your use of inside jokes as press releases. And I identify with it. In fact, it reminds me of a press release my company launched about a year ago, in which we promise "mondo shirtage": http://www.prlog.org/11203938-new-shirt-website-promises-mon...

It's just hard for us to take press releases seriously.

"So you can build a store and start taking orders in minutes."

Good design is timeless.

Indeed. Well done.

N.B. The press release for tlb's graduation propagates one of the John Harvard Statue's famous Three Lies: Harvard was founded in 1636 and not, as reported on the statue and in the release, in 1638. Minor error, or sly joke? We may never know for sure.

    3. You can have orders forwarded by fax.

[edit: quote from http://ycombinator.com/viaweb/howitwor.html]

I ran the servers for a whole company like that, everyday thinking that's totally unprofessional but it is effective.

After we went to our own raised floor cold room, I still never felt it was that much more reliable. Cleaner, more polished yes. But 80% of the effect for 20% of cost is usually a good deal.

Fitting out your server room from the local hardware store felt like a successful hack.

Viamall as a whole is currently getting over 9.9 million page views per month. That corresponds to over 72 million "hits", or http requests.

Once upon a time these were the currency of the internet :)

Of course now, even page views is seen as archaic and a little cough exaggeratory. I remember campaigning at my place-of-work (in early 2000) to have this term banished in favour of unique visitors.

I remember the web in 1998. It stunk. And every TV commercial said "visit us at blah.com, or America Online keyword 'blah'".

Ah, the good ol' days.

As they say, Simplicity is the height of sophistication.

Elsewhere it says Viaweb had 1050 customers. So does this mean Viaweb had < $3.8m / yr in revenue when it was sold ?

http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=7...