Hey everyone, I can’t believe it’s already been over a year since my last blog! Lots of changes between then and now, which I’ll be sure to cover in a future bit of writing. Now, let’s get to the history of iancarey.com!
One thing I want to mention and give a ton of credit to is the Internet Archive and their Wayback Machine. It’s something that’s going to become even more important as time goes on and we live increasingly digital lives. You can learn more about their mission by clicking here.
I don’t recall the exact moment that I “discovered” the Internet Archive and their Wayback Machine. I do enjoy using it, mostly when I’m on a nostalgia kick yearning for “simpler times.”
Before we dive into iancarey.com, one thing I often go back and look at from various points in time is NASCAR.com. When I was a kid I was lucky enough to attend one (if not both) of the NASCAR races every year at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The grandstands were PACKED, all around the speedway, and there was a waitlist for tickets. I love looking at the site — it’s so incredibly simple, to think this is where the “tech savvy” NASCAR fan went to get their news at the height of the sport’s popularity.
Now, on to iancarey.com! While the Internet Archive began archiving the internet in 1996, the first activity for this site appears to be in September of 2004 — unfortunately, when I review the capture there isn’t anything on the page itself.
In 2007, we get a little bit more information. It’s only an error message, but we do see a “Coming Soon…” at the top.
By December 2007, the page begins to load something called “Ruffle.” The loading fails with an error, but if I had to guess, it’s trying to connect to a third-party service.
Fig 1: The error message visitors saw on iancarey.com in 2007
We see this error message until January of 2011, when Ian Carey’s official site appears! Ian Carey (Ian Joseph Harshman) was an American house DJ, musician, and record producer based out of Miami, Florida. Check out the different looks the site took over the years below.
Fig 2: iancarey.com in January of 2011
Late in 2011 we see a pretty significant change to the styling of the site.
Fig 3: iancarey.com in October of 2011
Things stayed the same for a while, with the next major update late in 2014.
Fig 4: iancarey.com in December of 2014
December 2014 was really the last major change made to the site, up until Ian Harshman’s passing in 2021. At that point, different error messages began to appear, and the domain changed hands, eventually getting squatted back in 2023. I ended up looking into the site last year and was finally in a position to purchase the domain in 2025.
One thing I wasn’t prepared for when I purchased the domain was the flurry of emails and other things left over from the original iancarey.com. I’d get emails from booking agents, and even get sent new music from various labels and artists. It was truly a fascinating look into what happens when a domain changes hands and things aren’t turned off or updated.
All in all, it’s been a fascinating experience. Having this “space” online — one I prefer over most other forms of social media — almost takes me back to Myspace. I wonder how Tom is doing these days?
Here’s several tracks to remember the OG Ian Carey by:
Till next time, be well!