London - To most of the planet a mere decade ago a web was something spiders and mystery writers wove. But then again it was only the first day of the world's first Internet café.
Café Cyberia opened its doors 10 years ago in the heart of London - the brainchild of a Polish psychology student who had the savvy and foresight to combine coffee and email.
Eva Pascoe's cybercafé immediately drew rave reviews and investments from many including the likes of rock frontman Mick Jagger.
From the branch on Wiltshire Road, in London's bustling Tottenham Court Road area, it spawned outlets across Britain and abroad, showing up even inside Paris' Pompidou Centre - the contemporary art museum in the heart of the French capital.
The Internet, first developed in the 1960s, only began to be used on a wide scale in the early 1990s - it is now one of the world's dominant forms of communication, delivering everything from annoying spam advertisements, the latest news and pornography on to websurfers' screens.
Cybercafés, likewise, have sprung up in lands far-flung, on remote isles and in public transport stations, hubs for tourists away from their home computers and students on a budget. Some estimate about 20 000 such cafés now exist.
The site opened by Eva Pascoe in 1994 is still there, but today it is called BTR Internet Café and is owned by South Korean investors.
"We are still using the same connecting line that Cyberia was using. It's the fastest in the country with a speed of 10 megabytes per second," café manager Jin said.
"We're still using the same coffee machine too," he added with a smile.
New advances have come in to meet the old, however - the café now boasts a karaoke machine as well as a room dedicated to online gaming.