What has changed since the 1990s (days of AOL) to make the internet faster?

The main way the internet has improved since the 1990s is that bandwidth from the terminal (device) to the server has significantly improved. 

1. Homes and businesses now have broadband internet access. For example, instead of using modem internet, people now have access to cable internet and fiber which is much faster than a modem connection. Broadband became available in North America in 1996. By 2010, over 65% of US households had adopted broadband. 
2. More fiber optic cable has been laid across the country, and continents are now connected with fiber optics. The first fiber optic cable was laid across the Pacific Ocean in 1996. 
3. Cell phone towers now provide internet to smartphones and mobile devices to a larger area. 
4. New technologies, such as satellite internet are improving speeds across the world. 

1. Caching technology has improved since the 1990s. Websites now cache commonly used images so they load faster. 
2. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) are now being used to cache data for regions. If a website is hosted in the US, but you are in Europe, images can be cached in a CDN in Europe to improve load times for that region.
3. Compression technology to compress images so they load faster has also improved.