I would posit that "old web" could be defined as the period before Google Search became public (<~1997).

But maybe that's more a measure of my own age and perceptions rather than an accurate representation of the various eras of the internet/web...

Web Design Museum: Search Engines https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/exhibitions/search-engines-i...

Thanks for the link. In ‘96 I only had text-only/Lynx, so rarely/never got to see what the early versions looked like with a “real” browser.

That’s the Cretaceous web. I miss it fondly.

Oh good golly miss molly. I had my first email address at an .edu in 1980, first website in my own real name since 1993. the 2000's are just new kids on the block

I'm not sure I miss the web as it was but miss the feeling of it all being novel and exciting. You can still get glimpses of it nowadays but it isn't often.