I Wanted Something Small. The Web Went Back to the ’90s.

I was looking for something small enough to actually finish. A browser extension, deliberately simple to develop, fun to use, and without a complicated system around it. That was the brief before there was an idea.

What if the page already open in the browser could look as though it belonged to the late 1990s? No new website to visit. Just the familiar page, suddenly wearing a different decade. It was an idea I wanted to see working, rather than a problem I had decided the world needed solved.

That became Retrofy Page. Click, choose a mode, and the current page changes: older typography, blue underlined links, flatter layouts, sometimes a lot more visual noise. Soft 90s is the restrained version. GeoCities Chaos makes room for the excess. Pure HTML pushes toward a simpler page.

A small idea can still collect things

The published extension also has a retro browser frame, a Windows 95 desktop, a screensaver and HTML export. Those additions show the appeal of the idea: once there is a little piece of an old computer on screen, it is tempting to build the next piece. They also show how quickly a simple brief can grow.

The old web is the material, not a standard of correctness. Retrofy does not recover what a modern page looked like in 1998. It restyles what is there now. That distinction matters: the joke works because the content is familiar and the presentation is suddenly wrong for its time.

There are limits. A highly dynamic web app is a less forgiving starting point than a plain article. The store listing describes some modes as experimental; the repository says ordinary pages work best. A playful transformation can be uneven without making the whole idea worthless. It still needs to be honest about where it stops working.

Then it belonged to other people’s tabs

Retrofy Page was actually published, on both Chrome and Firefox. By 5 October 2026, the Chrome Web Store displayed 363 users and two ratings, averaging 3 out of 5. Mozilla’s live API reported 32 average daily users and two ratings, averaging 4 out of 5. These are different store measures, not a combined audience or a total download count.

The more interesting part is the feedback. One Chrome reviewer enjoyed it and wanted automatic application. Another reported that every option failed with a scripting error. On Firefox, a written review also asked for activation when a page opens, instead of another manual click for each tab.

That is a more useful account of the project than calling it a success. Someone found a reason to keep it. Someone else could not make it work. And a feature request appeared without me having to invent one: make the effect persist.

The next version is still a question

Automatic activation would change the original bargain. A button that affects the current tab is easy to understand. Applying the effect to future pages asks for more control over browsing, along with clear choices about which sites should be included. A request worth considering is not a feature already delivered.

For now, Retrofy is a small published experiment with real use, uneven results, and an unfinished next step. I wanted something simple and amusing to build. Other people using it made the question a little less simple. That is where this project’s story starts to get interesting.