zlacker

The Internet has had ads since the advent of the world wide web, arguably longer.

I loved Usenet, but I also appreciated being able to have a personal webpage for free as a kid, and that was ad-supported.

>>lkbm+(OP)
The web precedes commercialization, but many tons of money were pumped into the web post-commercialization, so a lot changed quickly after that.

There were free ways to get on the net, and to host web pages, before 1995. And for many years after that, you could pay for ISP access, which would come with the ability to host pages.

We're still paying for ISP access, we just get fewer services with it. That could change.