| Google Groups While it's been available in beta for a while, Google Groups is now officially open for business. And what's old is new again, with 20, count 'em, 20 years of Usenet discussion groups to search, browse, and post messages to. Check out the historical landmarks, handily pointed out by the googlers themselves, or just perform a couple of vanity searches to see how silly you were back in the early '90s. In the spirit of Google's shiny new archive, we've decided to take a stroll down memory lane with some landmark editions of Yahoo! Picks of the Week.... |
| First Picks of the Week Who knew, on that fateful night in August, 1995 that a franchise was being born? There's the first pick ever, The Squat, a parody of The Spot, and now both sites are long defunct. And, hey, whaddya know, there's Deja News, the previous web-based incarnation of Usenet newsgroups. What goes around comes around, eh? The first Picks of the Week is also noted for its stylish use of bullet points, its smart nod to the still intriguing Conde Nast Traveler site, and its daring reference to Dick Assman. |
| First Paragraph and PBS As we so eloquently proclaimed in February of '96, we picked these sites "because we think they are good." With such unbridled excitement surrounding this batch, we scrapped the one-sentence description we'd been employing and described these sites with entire paragraphs, some as long as seven sentences! In addition to being the first "narrative" Picks, they were also the first to mention the PBS site, one we continue to highlight and recommend because of its superior content and design. And we'd be remiss if we didn't mention the World-Wide Sushi Restaurant Reference!, an incredible resource for raw fish lovers. Unfortunately, most of the other sites we chose back then are dead and gone, but if you're interested in seeing what they looked like, utilize the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to venture back in time. |
| First Uncle Chester Reference November 1997 saw the introduction of several recurring Picks of the Week characters. A crusty curmudgeon with the heart of a cocker spaniel (literally!), Uncle Chester graced our fictional Thanksgiving Day table and charmed us all with his septuagenarian antics. Another oft-seen player that debuted on this date was Matt Neuman, a very funny man who isn't afraid to be serious, as in "serious-ly gut-bustingly hilarious." In any case, Uncle Chester made several more cameos in 1997 and 1998, but was eventually canned due to a contract dispute. (He demanded Friends money.) Happily, Matt Neuman continues to produce funny material and is still known to pop up in Weekly Picks every now and again. |
| First British Invasion During the halcyon days of early '99, boy bands like the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC were ruling the charts. However, in the spirit of Picks of the Week, we ignored Justin, A.J., Howie, et al, and focused on the bands the British invasion left behind. Wee Willy and the Wombles provided a vehicle for Mark Ryden's art exhibit, while Yogesh, Kamlesh, and Kaushik warbled about mums and curries. But the real winner in this group was a young, brash group called the The Picadilly Willies. In fact, several months later, the band's meteoric rise, and subsequent tragic fall, were fodder for a classic Behind the Music. |
| First Monkey Reviewers The first dot-com lampoon starring a cast of reviewing monkeys. Heck, if Epinions could do it, why couldn't a set of super-smart simians? Read why Koko the gorilla awarded the Palm VII only one star out of a possible five, or get Janky the orangutan's take on the taste of Penn Powerserve tennis balls. Shortly after this edition of Picks, venture capital firms throughout Silicon Valley scrambled to set up monkey-driven pet food sites, gorilla-based portals, and broadband for baboons. Sadly, the monkey dot-com bubble burst shortly thereafter, leaving us only this relic of the go-ape late '90s. |
| First Chips and Dips Hands down, the best week of 2001. Thick with quality sites top to bottom, this week probably set more bookmarks than any other week in recent memory. It led off with the then just-underway 1000 Journals Project, an idea that now makes for fascinating browsing. Also featured on this glorious week -- Song Fight!, the place for amateur songsmiths to make their case; Pseudo Dictionary, a language lover's dream; and On the Rail, a behind the scenes look at the food-service biz. The shining star of this week was Taquitos.net, an extensive news and reviews site for every type of chip imaginable. This crunch-tastic site was assuredly one of 2001's best. Speaking of which... Tune in next week for our annual Yahoo! Picks of the Year. |
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