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Brian McCullough: How the Internet Happened (2018)

"Tech-guru Brian McCullough delivers a rollicking history of the internet, why it exploded, and how …

The first genuine advertisement on the World Wide Web was published by Global Network Navigator, which in 1993, sold an ad to a Silicon Valley law firm, Heller, Ehrman, White & McAuliffe.

— How the Internet Happened by  (Page 5)

Must have been a good ad because the firm is still around (www.hellerehrman.com)

Sadly I can't seem to find a screenshot of the advertisement — I'm quite curious as to what it looks like.

replied to Huey's status

I'm afraid the original company isn't around as of 2008 after dissolution; the remnants of which are now undergoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

GNN itself had an interesting history; I remember teenaged me trying it out as one of the 3.5" diskettes for the service was in a PC magazine I regularly read. At that time, most Americans had no clue of the web or internet in general as there were a few disparate dial-up services and only a few million subscribed to any of them. It was very rare to find a PC in most people's homes, let alone a modem to dial out to a computer that would then connect to the internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Network_Navigator