First Use in a Published Article (1992)
To the best of my knowledge I am credited with the first published use of the phrase. This is due to an article titled "Surfing the Internet," published in the June 1992 monthly magazine, Wilson Library Bulletin. (Wilson Library Bulletin, v66 n10 p38-42, Jun 1992 or ERIC document EJ447456) I think of this as version 1.0. WLB has now ceased publication, but it was a popular monthly professional magazine for librarians, and was published by the H.W. Wilson company. Read about about how I came up with the title.
Subsequently I updated and expanded the article and released the electronic file for FTP download December 3, 1992 as version 2.0 (closely followed by 2.01 and Dec. 15's version 2.0.2). It quickly spread around the world after that. We put up a version 2.0.3 update in May, 1993.
Other Early Use in Printed Publications (1993-1995)
Because I am a librarian, I did extensive searches for early uses of the terms "Internet" and "surfing (or surf or surfer)" in print media. In 2001 I searched DIALOG@CARL newspaper archives, many of which go back into the early 80s. Here's what I've found.
My Wilson Library Bulletin article was first, June 1992.
Then there's a gap of a year.
The San Francisco Chronicle first used it on June 1, 1993
This article also states that worldwide, "The number of people hooked to the Internet has grown exponentially -- from about 2,000 in 1981 to about 15 million today."
USA Today, Aug. 17, 1993
InfoWorld Sept. 20, 1993
PC Week Nov. 15, 1993
Boston Globe, Nov. 23, 1993 "Internet surfer"
Halifax Daily News, Dec. 1, 1993
New York Times, Dec. 8, 1993 "to surf the Internet"
Washington Post, Dec. 18, 1993 "to surf the Internet"
Seattle Times, Dec. 21, 1993
Washington Post, Jan. 16, 1994
Computerworld, Feb. 14, 1994
Times of London, April 24, 1994 "net-surfing"
San Jose Mercury News, April 29, 1994 "surfed the Internet"
St. Petersburg Times, May 1, 1994
San Jose Mercury News, May 22, 1994
Charlotte Observer, June 30, 1994
Internet World July-August 1994
Atlanta Constitution, July 24, 1994
San Francisco Examiner, July 24, 1994
St Louis Post-Dispatch, Aug. 17, 1994 "Internet surfer"
Network World Aug. 29, 1994
Roanoke Times, Oct. 8, 1994
Business Times (Asia- Pacific), Oct. 10, 1994
Newsday and New York Newsday, Oct. 19, 1994
Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 21, 1994
Richmond Times-Dispatch Nov. 6, 1994
Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 7, 1994
Madison Capital Times, Nov. 15, 1994
Los Angeles Times, Dec. 18, 1994
Byte, Jan. 1995
The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 17, 1995
Detroit Free Press, Feb. 4, 1995
Miami Herald, Feb. 5, 1995
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