IT MAY SEEM THAT 1998 was all about the president and an intern and sex, and in many ways it has been. But in Boston.com's world - and the world of its users - where New England intersects with sports, technology, business and entertainment to form a new home page every few minutes, 1998 meant so much more.
Of course, the stories that got lots of attention on our Web site also appeared on countless thousands of others: The White House sex scandal, the conflict in Iraq, the great home run chase, and natural disasters like Hurricanes Georges and Bonnie.
In 1998, Big MOney lured a top company (Digital), a favorite team (Patriots), and our beloved home run hitter (Mo Vaughn, above).
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The news menu we served to users was plenty different, too. There was no dearth of local and regional news to fill the page. Big sports and business stories occurred almost every day. And stories about the Internet and technology . . . well, take your pick.
Some common themes emerged among our top stories of the year. Foremost among them: Money. First, we saw Digital Equipment Corp., at one time the Commonwealth's largest employer, gobbled up by Compaq in what the business historians will surely dub the 'Year of the Mega-merger.' No doubt the effect of the $9.6 billion deal has reached well beyond Digital's Maynard headquarters.
Big bucks also wreaked havoc on some of our favorite pastimes. Sports and business mingled at a party hosted by Patriots owner Robert Kraft and John Rowland, the Connecticut governor who likely has lured the team from Massachusetts with a $375 million stadium deal. Red Sox fans watched yet another beloved slugger vanish from the lineup, as our Mo Vaughn left town to don an $80 million halo under the Anaheim sun. The fans blamed a general manager, who responded by offering better money to a rival Yankee centerfielder. But the chagrined Dan Duquette found Bernie Williams loyal to the Bronx.
In 1998, the Internet infused itself into our legal and constitutional processes, or at least tried to. In that sense, Massachusetts Judge Hiller B. Zobel (above), who presided in the Louise Woodward trial, found an unlikely savior in Kenneth Starr.
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The Internet worked its way into situations where it would previously seem out of place. Louise Woodward was convicted and sent to prison, only to be freed by a judge who tried (and failed) to embrace the Web when releasing his opinion to an assembled international audience. But an unlikely hero in the Internet world emerged: Kenneth Starr. With the click of a mouse, Starr morphed Judge Zobel's failure into success. His report on the White House scandal may have been much larger, but it was released instantly, and to an arguably larger audience.
Local education issues found a prominent place on our homepage too. The problems were large and the questions broad: Who's to blame for our many failing students? Should teachers be tested? What do we teach? What is the role of parents? Our users sought some of the answers, as well as their district's MCAS results, on line.
Most of all, 1998 saw the mainstreaming of the Web world itself. Perhaps the year's biggest story, however introspective, was the growing tidal wave of Internet users. They read the news; they bought their stocks and bonds and mutual funds; they contributed to their IRAs; they planned their weekends; and, to cap off 1998, they purchased their holiday gifts. Early numbers indicate that while the malls may not have been noticeably emptier this holiday season, more people bought and shipped and personalized their gifts without ever holding them in their hands.
And so it seems that in 1998 the Web finally lived up to much of its hype and gained its prominence on a World Wide scale. What's most exciting to us (and, admittedly, a bit scary) is that the Internet has plenty of room to grow in 1999.
Happy New Year to all.
The stories in Boston.com's Year in Review report are from The Boston Globe and the Associated Press.
FROM LEFT: The Starr Report arrived at the Capitol by car, but it got to the public even faster via the Internet; Louise Woodward's tears later dried up when the judge freed her with an opinion released on the Web; This student found her MCAS results waiting for her in the mail, but her mom may have seen how her school district ranked by looking on line; and even Santa Claus took to the Web to finish up some last minute shopping.
(Globe Staff, AP and Reuters Photos)