One of the true internet bellwethers is turning over the counter tomorrow. Yup, Yahoo is turning 10. I believe that’s the bowling party and ice cream cake anniversary. But this little infobit also brought to my attention that it was very close to Yahoo’s launch that I was first introduced to the internet.

That’s a pretty big deal, the way I see it. To say that the net has changed my life is an understatement and a half. I’ve found lost friends with this. My apartment. My scene. Hell, my livelyhood is directly dependant on the internet. It’s been berry, berry good to me, you see.

I can still remember the first time I got to see the net. I was in my mechanical drawing class back in high school. The man in charge of the class was also the one in charge of the school’s new technology initiative and the new school-wide computer network. Someone from Cybercomm was giving him a tour of their services and I was looking in every chance I could.

Chat rooms, newsgroups, gopher space, email…it was mind boggling all the things I saw. And then they opened up Navigator 0.9 and I saw the web for the first time. It was all over at that moment. Within a week I had gone out and gotten the biggest, most encompassing book on the net I could find and then read it from cover to cover. I asked for a computer as the only graduation gift from both my mom and my dad, which I got in advance of the mortarboard and tassel trip. I set up my own account over at Cybercomm and shortly thereafter began my online life, racing along at 14.4 kbps.

To think how far it’s all come in a decade. Simply amazing, isn’t it? So what was your first net experience like?

Extra: Wired has a good write-up on Yahoo! in the shadow of Google and lays out what the future paths for the companies might be.