Perhaps it is time for a quick moment of silence in honor of one of the early pioneers in the consumer movement to the Internet. CompuServe Classic has been closed by current owner, AOL.

Like so many things rendered obsolete by fast-moving technology, the dial-up service isn’t likely to be missed by many people. Still, why not stop just for a moment to remember one of the Internet’s original onramps?

You can read a little more about its history in this article by CNET’s Tom Krazit.

Back in the early days of the PC, CompuServe was the Google of its day. Introduced in 1979, it was the premier service for a small number of geeks in the 1980s looking to share files and conversation as well as corporate customers looking for ways to connect their offices. And by the early 1990s, before the dawn of the World Wide Web and browsers, CompuServe’s forums were the place to be on the Internet.