NetZero
Free dial-up internet provider from 1998 that traded an ad banner for a connection — you surfed for nothing as long as you could stand the strip of advertising at the top of the screen.
Launched in 1998 in California on a simple barter: free dial-up access in exchange for an always-visible ad bar. The model pulled in millions of users during the dot-com frenzy, helped by a 2000 Super Bowl commercial that crowned the company "Defenders of the Free World".
The free math did not survive the collapse of the ad market, of course; the company began charging for hours past a cap and in 2001 merged with rival Juno to form United Online. The name lives on as a budget provider of DSL and mobile broadband, a relic of a time when the internet arrived through the phone jack and 56k was the ceiling.