In 1994, almost nobody used the Internet outside of colleges and technology companies. Internet in a Box was one of the first products aimed at civilians to help them get online, inasmuch as there was an online to get to. Its brown cardboard looked unthreatening; it promised to get anyone connected to the Internet in 15 minutes. Inside were three floppy disks with a copy of Mosaic, the first successful web browser. The box featured a globe with “you are here” scattered across it—use it, and you would “be” anywhere in the whole wide world!

At the time, everything computerish came in a box: WordPerfect, Quicken, Microsoft Office. Naturally, we assumed the Internet came in a box, too. We took a vast, intangible network and shrink-wrapped it, put it on a retail shelf, and sold it like tax software. We were using floppy disks and phone jacks, manually connecting to the Internet to send emails to the handful of people we knew who also had email.

O'Reilly & Associates, the company that created Internet in a Box, or IBox as it was called, reported customers calling in and asking to buy a copy of the Internet. We didn’t understand that this box wasn’t a product; it was a key to a door. And within two years, Internet access came automatically bundled with computers. The key in a box was no longer useful. It opened a door that was standing wide open.

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Links:

• Network World review of Internet in a Box, October 24, 1994 (via Google Books)

  
  

• Memoirs from the Browser Wars - Eric Sink, April 15, 2003

This post is part of The American 250, a series featuring 250 objects made by Americans, located in America, in honor of the country's 250th anniversary. 250 words on 250 works, from January 1 to December 31, 2026.

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