Kurorekishi Mode

Please note: the extension's own text (the diary entries, the menu labels, the alerts) is in Japanese, because it recreates a specific era of the Japanese web. The visual transformation works on any page.

Do you remember? Between about 1999 and 2005, the internet was full of personal homepages.

Starry wallpaper. Flame wallpaper. Some inexplicable checked pattern. For some reason everybody used the same handful of materials.

And down the left-hand side there was always a menu. Profile, Diary, BBS, Links. All of them under construction.

Above that, text scrolled past. "Welcome to my homepage." Nobody was reading it. You scrolled it anyway. Those were the rules.

Then the hit counter. "You are visitor number..." Report it if you land on a round number. Who decided that?

So — what is this extension? It turns whatever site you are looking at into one of those personal homepages. That is all it does.

There are seven wallpapers: starry sky, flames, marble, checks, pink polka dots, gradient, floral. All of them are a lot. That is the point.

The left menu appears too. Click it and you get an alert: "Under construction." Still under construction in 2024. When exactly is it going to be finished?

There is an administrator's diary as well. "Had a test today, oh well lol." Nobody asked. But that was the internet back then.

There is a hidden element. There is a small icon in the top right. Press it and something happens. Press it a few more times and more happens. We are not saying what. Go and find out.

Runs on Safari for iOS, iPadOS and macOS.

For anyone who loves the old internet. For anyone who wants to show a friend and laugh. For anyone who wants to lay their own past to rest.