The Sierra Leone Web was launched in February 1996, the first niche news service on the internet. It was also the first website to archive news.

In 1996, the "World Wide Web" was just beginning to emerge from the era of gray backgrounds, and "Gopher" was still a common way of presenting information online. Popular software included Netscape 1.0 and "Internet in a Box." Computer stores sold books teaching web design in ten easy lessons and the "Internet Yellow Pages." Commercial news websites were still years away.