20 Years Ago on AOL.com: July 29, 1999 -- Find People; Atlanta Spree Killing

July 29, 1999: In a pre-Google, pre-Facebook era, it wasn't always easy to find people. For a Find People promo, we went with White Pages, E-Mail Finder, and somewhat jarringly, Search Personals:

We then did a mid-morning update following a mass shooting at two Atlanta brokerage offices, with 9 dead:

We stayed with the story for the rest of the day, with a PM update showing the shooter--a real winner--killed himself, as well as annihilating his family before the office shooting. (He was also the lone suspect in the murders of his first wife and mother-in-law 6 years earlier.):

 

[Series note: In the late 1990s, I programmed the content for the AOL.com home page, which relaunched with a new design on July 14, 1998. I printed screencaps and saved them. 20 years later, I'm scanning them in and posting them with a little commentary under the tag #20YearsAgoOnAOLcom.]