@Alfred When did cat images and memes take over the internet?
@piquant00 @Alfred: I would say the mid- to not-too-late-2000s, after Facebook went from being a school/regional platform to national and growing. MySpace was in there as well, certainly. Then there was the opening up in 2008 and 2009 of imgur and imgflip, and that really catapulted cat memes as well.
@thedisasterautist @piquant00 @Alfred Keep going back. rec.pets.cats c.1990s was serving up cat pictures.
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@b4cks4w @piquant00 @Alfre: They were not memes then, however. They did not "go viral". The only reason we know of them lately is because of families and researchers and photo restorers finding them and putting them out (often as memes).