As far as we knew, Viaweb was the first web-based application, but I worry that there were others we didn't know about. So please tell me if you know of any earlier. It depends what counts as an application, of course. What I mean by an application is a web site that is not merely an interface to a database, but something like a desktop application, where the user actually builds things on the server. That is, something with the equivalent of file->new. Robert Morris and I demoed the first version of Viaweb to investors in August 1995. At the time, as far as we knew, it was a new kind of software. But I don't want to be saying something that isn't true, so if anyone knows of any web-based applications before that, please drop me a line.