I would imagine it was harder to get information on topics as you would’ve had to buy/borrow encyclopedias to do.

Were there proprietary predecessor websites?

Tell me about the dark ages!

    • TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub
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      1 month ago

      This sums it up. That cool song you would like to know the name or artist? Bad luck if it wasn’t popular. Where does x idiom come from? Wait until you’re at home/the library.

      You would have many of these unresolved questions for years, until some solved itself fortuitously.

        • FigMcLargeHuge@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          I had a particular set of notes stuck in my head for decades. Then one day about 10 years ago I finally managed to remember one of the words of the song, and with that actually managed to google the song. I thought it was something I would never hear again. That song is My Love is Alive by Gary Wright. I remembered the 6 notes in the bass line and that had been driving me nuts for decades.

  • .Donuts@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Arguments at the dinner table were solved by an exasperated FINE, I’ll get up and get the encyclopedia just to prove you wrong

    Also, we had Encarta. It wasn’t online, but on a CD-ROM so you could view it digitally compared to the dozens of hefty books