1998 / Web post / Personal-homepage classic
Hampster Dance
A page of bouncing hamsters set to a sped-up earworm became a widely shared early-web hit.
The original is hosted off-site; this page provides context and a link to it.
What was this?
Rows of tiny animated hamsters bounced along to a relentlessly cheerful loop. The site did not need a premise beyond “here are the hamsters again,” which was exactly why people kept sending it to each other.
Why it spread
The page spread through links, email, and copycat sites. By 1999, it had become an early web phenomenon with millions of visits and hundreds of imitation pages built from a remarkably simple mechanism.
What happened
Rows of tiny animated hamsters bounced along to a relentlessly cheerful loop. The site did not need a premise beyond “here are the hamsters again,” which was exactly why people kept sending it to each other.
Where it came from
In 1998, Deidre LaCarte built the Hampster Dance on GeoCities around her pet hamster, Hampton, as a friendly web-traffic contest with her partner and sister.
Why it mattered
Hampster Dance preserves the feel of the personal-homepage web: homemade, loud, and built to make visitors laugh.
How it spread
The page spread through links, email, and copycat sites. By 1999, it had become an early web phenomenon with millions of visits and hundreds of imitation pages built from a remarkably simple mechanism.
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