Like ATMs, it may seem that cybercafes -- these hip-hubs of access to the world of the Internet -- have always been here, but it has only been 10 years ago this September that the world's first Internet cafe opened its doors in London's West End.
In the decade that followed, cybercafes, and similar Net surfing locales, have proliferated everywhere imaginable -- ranging from the Casa Del Corrigedor, in Puno, Peru to the Phlegmatic Dog, in Moscow.
These two aforementioned spots are just several of the cybercafes around the globe that were judged to be "the best places around the globe to surf the Net," by a panel convened by Yahoo, the Internet-titan, which itself started off as a campus-trailer project before growing to its present state of millions of world-wide users.
While Net experts debate the relevance of the Net cafe in the age of high-bandwidth home connections -- albeit in America and Europe -- these access points to the brave not-so-new world of the Internet still seem popular in the West, and if anything have exploded in the developing world.
Noting the phases of popularity that cybercafes have gone through in the Western world, professor William Schiano, at the Department of Computer Information Systems, Bentley College, Waltham, Mass., said, "I think we are seeing the second rise of cybercafes. In their early days, they were attractive to those who had slow or even no connectivity at home and to those who didn't have a PC at home ... With the advent of Wi-Fi and the precipitous drop in the cost of access for the cafes, we are now seeing access being given away or pricing attractively to draw people to the physical location. The rise in laptop ownership also means the cafes no longer need expensive computing infrastructure."
He added, "Local coffee houses are now becoming serious gathering places for writers, consultants and others who do much of their work on computer, providing a social outlet for many who might otherwise be working in isolation in their houses."
The winners of the inaugural "Yahoo Mail Internet Cafe Awards" also include a laundromat-Internet cafe in San Francisco, and a Net cafe which specifically caters to senior citizens in Swansea, Wales. Yahoo estimates that around 20,000 Net cafes have opened in more than 100 countries in the last decade.
A Yahoo spokesperson said that over the summer, travelers sent in over 1000 nominations for Internet cafes in 111 countries. The winners were then chosen by a judging panel, which included Eva Pascoe, who co-founded Cafe Cyberia, the world's first Internet cafe, in London's West End, which opened in September of 1994.
As Cyberia's Pascoe recounts, "...one day I was sitting in the coffee shop close to City University. It occurred to me that it would be fun to have a cup of good coffee and bring in my laptop to the coffee shop to send emails while having a break from work. I looked around, and found some friends who were already accessing the Internet at home. We figured out that we could actually put a permanent PC connection in a coffee shop and link it to the Internet. That way everybody could come in and for a small fee chat to friends and family around the world through e-mail and Instant Messenger."
She added wryly, "Three months later we had the first cybercafe on Whitfield St ... The only problem was that my coffee machine could only make one cappuccino every two minutes, so the shop was full of people who were lining up to use the Internet and demanding their coffee a bit faster than I could provide!"
Other judges include James Bilefield, Managing Director Communication Products at Yahoo! Europe, Mark Ellingham, the founder of Rough Guides; Anna Bacon from STA Travel; and Lyn Hughes, the editor and founder of Wanderlust magazine.
The best nominations have been listed in a special Rough Guides e-book (The Rough Guide to the World's Best Internet Cafes -- Found and Brought to you by Yahoo! UK), which is available to download at yahoo.co.uk/internetcafes.
The cafes were entered into one of five categories: Most Remote Internet Cafe, Most Unusual, Most Stylish, Best UK and a special Life Saver category (an Internet cafe that was there in a traveler's hour of need.)
The Yahoo judged winners were:
- Best UK Internet Cafe - Cafe Curve, Brighton (curvebrighton.co.uk), situated in the heart of the trendy North Laines, Brighton - "A must for anyone who likes style, comfort, typing and keeping in touch," the judges said.
- Life Saver - Casa Del Corrigedor, Puno, Peru (casadelcorregidor.com.pe), nominated for providing tourists with vital, up-to-date information about the situation in neighboring Bolivia during the political unrest of October 2003.
- Most Stylish Internet Cafe - The Phlegmatic Dog, Moscow (phlegmaticdog.com), a sleek cafe and club on Red Square, in the shadow of the Kremlin - "The interior is a unique combination of comfort and hi-tech."
- Most Unusual Internet Cafe - Brain Wash, San Francisco (brainwash.com), a laundromat and Internet cafe all in one! "Brain Wash is at the height of Internet cafe cum laundromat cool."
- Most Remote Internet Cafe - Télé Centre Polyvalent (TCP), Timbuktu, Mali, a center funded by international organizations to provide vital services for the local community - "Maybe the last place on earth to find an e-mail cafe," the Yahoo judges rhetorically asked.
- Finally the judges decided to give a special award to JJ's Internet cafe at the Ty Waunarlwydd Residential Care Home in Waunarlwydd near Swansea, Wales, a Net cafe situated inside a residential home and day care center. "It proves that age isn't a barrier to joining the 'www' revolution," the Yahoo! panel said.
According to Yahoo's Bilefield, "The Internet cafe concept is as fresh and as relevant today as it was ten years ago."
He added, "It's now second nature for travelers and people on the move to use the local Internet cafe to keep up with the news from home and to tell friends and family where they have been. However many Internet cafes also provide an essential service for the local community, and in the developing world, a place where people can learn from the Internet and communicate with others around the globe."
Pascoe said, "Despite the fact that home and work Internet access is now commonplace, Internet cafes fulfill the same role as they did ten years ago. They are the post offices of the wired generation."
She added, "What surprised me was how many of the cafes nominated had been set up so recently, and how advanced they were in terms of technical set up. I only wish I had been able to do the same with Cafe Cyberia all those years ago!"
