Is this Mark Zuckerberg’s first ever website, created at age 15 on Angelfire?

zuck_first_website

What were you doing at age 15? Don’t remember… or don’t want to remember? In any case, this post isn’t here to discuss your misdeeds as a teenager but rather to highlight what the world’s second youngest billionaire, Mark Zuckerberg, was doing. And that is building the website ‘Mark’s Homepage’ on Angelfire.

The website serves as a showcase for many Java-based apps Zuckerberg developed, such as Vader Fader which fades text in instant messengers, plus some humor and information about Zuckerberg himself, who refers to himself as “Slim Shady”. What I found most interesting about the website is a Java app called ‘The Web’:

the_web_screenshot

As of now, the web is pretty small. Hopefully, it will grow into a larger web. This is one of the few applets that require your participation to work well. If your name is already on The Web because someone else has chosen to be linked to you, then you may choose two additional people to be linked with. Otherwise, if you see someone who you know and would like to be linked with but your name is not already on The Web, then you can contact me and I will link that person to you and put you on The Web. If you do not know anyone on The Web, contact me anyway and I will put you on it. In order for this applet to work, you must E-Mail me your name and the names of the two people that you would like to be linked with. Thank you!

Sound a bit like social networking as imagined by a 15-year-old?

It should be noted this hasn’t been officially been confirmed to be Zuckerberg’s website. However, there are plenty of clues that point towards that fact, such as the source code of the website listing “Mark Zuckerberg” as the content owner, the website being associated with New York (the state Zuckerberg grew up in), and the email associated with the website (Themarke51@aol.com) being connected to a username used by Zuckerberg’s father, Dr. Edward Zuckerberg. Still, I suppose it could be an elaborate hoax.

I suppose in the gran scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter if this is actually Zuckerberg’s or not. What does matter, however, is that Angelfire was used. Come on, Zuck; Geocities > Angelfire, any day. Hit up the link below if you want to check out the website for yourself.

Mark’s Homepage on Angelfire

[Thanks Enrique, via CNN, Gizmodo]

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