Global Network Navigator

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The Global Network Navigator (GNN) was the first commercial web publication and the first web site to offer clickable advertisements, now commonly referred to as "banner ads."

GNN was founded in May of 1993 by Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty of O'Reilly & Associates of Sebastopol, California at time when there were less than 500 web sites operative worldwide.

The free service was divided into five parts:

GNN News
GNN Magazine
The Online Whole Earth Catalog
The GNN Marketplace
Navigator's Forum

The Online Whole Earth Catalog - the forerunner of Internet directory services like Yahoo! - was organized into ten sections:

The Internet
Current Affairs
Science
Technology
Humanities
Arts
Libraries, Reference & Education
Government and politics
Business
Work and Play

In the original press release that introduced GNN, the Online Whole Internet Catalog was described this way: "... subscribers can not only read about these subjects, they can actually connect to them with the click of a button." GNN described itself as "a new experiment in online publishing."

Potential readers were advised that they would need "an Internet connection, a World Wide Web (WWW) browser and a universal resource locator for GNN or a local copy of the GNN 'home page' (which is available via electronic mail."

Among other projects, GNN sponsored the "Best of the Web Awards" an event held annually in San Francisco. Public relations for GNN and its various initiatives was handled by Niehaus Ryan Haller (See: Ed Niehaus)

O'Reilly sold GNN to America Online in 1995 and GNN was turned into an Internet service provider as a counter-point to AOL's primary online service which at the time offered limited Internet access. When AOL introduced its flat rate in 1996 along with full Internet access, GNN was discontinued. GNN's accounts were rolled-over into AOL.

Lisa Gansky served as GNN's CEO. Jennifer Robbins was GNN's designer.

External links

[littlechair project archive: GNN] - Examples and comments on the original GNN website by one of its designers.

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