Really? You were happy without search engines, without google maps, without Microsoft or Apple download pages, without any social sites, without wiki?
Maybe you were, I was not.
Well, gee, did you take me to be advocating that the internet should go back exactly to where it was in 1992? How about putting a little effort into finding an interpretation of my comment that doesn't make me that dumb / perverse?
The context of my comment was advertising. In particular I was presenting evidence against the OP's assertion that things like Adblock Plus might ruin the internet.
In an alternate universe in which advertising had never been introduced on the internet, someone would probably have made maps available through the internet by now (Nokia had online maps for their phones that were probably (I am actually not entirely sure) not supported by ads), Microsoft and Apple would have download pages (why would they depend on ads?), and all the wikis I care about (the original wiki, namely http://c2.com/cgi/wiki, Wikipedia and various small or smallish wikis created by specialized communities) would have developed more or less like they actually did.
The context of my comment was advertising. In particular I was presenting evidence against the OP's assertion that things like Adblock Plus might ruin the internet.
In an alternate universe in which advertising had never been introduced on the internet, someone would probably have made maps available through the internet by now (Nokia had online maps for their phones that were probably (I am actually not entirely sure) not supported by ads), Microsoft and Apple would have download pages (why would they depend on ads?), and all the wikis I care about (the original wiki, namely http://c2.com/cgi/wiki, Wikipedia and various small or smallish wikis created by specialized communities) would have developed more or less like they actually did.