Flashback: Player Download Buttons From Back In The Days

For those old school folks in the industry, the below images will probably bring back a few memories. In the early days when the many of us were just starting to put video online, video players weren't embedded into the browser like they are today. For a couple of years, every video was in a stand-alone pop-up player and the user experience for downloading and updating their player was nothing like it is today.

From the earlier days of Xing Streamworks, VDO.net, Netshow, RealAudio and QuickTime these little download icons covered websites. It's amazing to think how quickly that user experience changed when the competition between Microsoft and RealNetworks hit its peak between 1998-2000, when both companies were developing new players at a furious rate. Personally, I still think more advances and development took place in those two years in the industry than during any other two year period since.