A book review exploring the history of Project Xanadu, Ted Nelson's pioneering but ultimately unsuccessful vision for a hypertext-based internet system that preceded and differed significantly from the World Wide Web. Longer summary

This book review traces the fascinating history of Project Xanadu, Ted Nelson's ambitious vision for a hypertext-based internet system that predated and rivaled the World Wide Web. Starting with Vannevar Bush's 1945 concept of the memex, through Doug Engelbart's groundbreaking demos, to Nelson's decades-long quest to build Xanadu, the post explores how this alternative vision for the internet - featuring bidirectional links, embedded content, and built-in attribution - ultimately failed to materialize despite its early start and innovative ideas. The review ends by questioning whether the simpler Web we got instead, built by Tim Berners-Lee, might have cost us something valuable in terms of how we connect and share information online. Shorter summary