Not especially. In 1996, Wired's online arm, HotWired, had launched a search engine, HotBot, using technology from Inktomi, now part of Yahoo. In the spring of 1997, I briefly worked as a freelancer copyediting marketing materials in which HotWired pitched advertisers on buying keyword advertising. Had Wired managed to go public in 1996, as it hoped, instead of being sold off in pieces to Condé Nast and Lycos, might it have raised enough money to build HotBot out? Possibly. Google didn't launch until 1998, after all.

But it's an academic point. Few of Google's ideas were wholly original; timing, execution, and clarity of vision played greater parts in its success. Not to mention luck. Wired always had more of that in chronicling the digital revolution than in living it.

I find early Well systems administrator Elaine "Booter" Richards' comment at 1:23 to be strikingly prophetic: "If it's lunch time at the office and I don't feel like going out, I'll log into the Well and go into the pets conference and talk about my cats." So, so little has changed.

Depicted in the portrait as a charming toddler, she grew into quite the Lady before being bled to death by her doctors at age 36. The amount and nature of her contribution to computing is controversial, with rumors attributing her with everything from substance abuse and gambling to manic depression and delusions of grandeur. Which tells me not much has changed in the developer community over the past two centuries.