[commieneko]

The term Channel Surfing predates all this by at least a decade. I first heard the term in the early '80, about the time when cable systems starting becoming the norm.

It's not too much a stretch to go from channel surfing to internet surfing.

Similar phrases that were, as it were, in the water at the time: bar surfing, bedroom surfing, boy/girl surfing.

I suspect a lot of these usages were regional, I know "bedroom surfing" was something I heard while living in Los Angeles. But "bar surfing" (and bar hopping) was common in the south as well.

Not trying to take anything away from anyone who first published the internet variations of this. But it was a thing before the internet.

[gweinberg]

Yeah, I had always assumed "surfing the internet" just grew out of "channel surfing".

[iisan7]

And couch surfing, which OED found a citation for from 1987. Still, applying it in a new context is worth something.

[nunez]

wow, didn't know that couch surfing was that old.

[commieneko]

Come to think of it, cable surfing was also something that I remember.