I started using the web around 1995, so I guess that depends on what time period you are referring to. I certainly didn't use it before the first graphical browsers appeared!

I guess my point is things like Gmail, flickr, last.fm etc would struggle to exist on subscription only. Perhaps we can do without them all though?

Also, I agree with the poster below with regard to finding content these days, it can be tedious. A search on a subject can find pages of aggregators, e-commerce sites and little in the way of true content. I don't find this the norm, but it happens.