Pre–World Wide Web online services

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Pre–World Wide Web online services are online service providers that predate the creation of the world wide web in the early 1990s and did not (initially) use TCP/IP. They were accessed directly over the phone line or via a time sharing network like Tymnet by use of a modem instead of over the internet. They mostly disappeared after 1995 as the internet grew to widespread use. Some services, such as Delphi, AOL, and CompuServe were able to transition their offerings to internet-based formats. They existed alongside BBSes but represent a more commercial edge of the spectrum, in contrast to the hobbyist/local nature of a BBS.^[1]