I think Daniel Bruce’s Entypo was the first icon set designed for the web that I fawned over.

Maybe it was how it had a cool name, almost like it was a startup product. And the website design around it was awesome. The 2012 design was pretty fresh, especially for that time:

Then a 2014 update:

Alas, they are no more. The link to download them leads to a broken Dropbox link.
Maybe even a smidge earlier than Entypo, Drew Wilson’s Pictos was also massively cool. This was circa 2012:

Pictos modernized into a fancy set that included line, solid, and color, which to this day is pretty cool and unique for an icon set to offer:

But alas:
You cannot get it as Plasso, the payments startup that was also done by Drew, is no more.
Bit rot, kids. Happens to the best of them.
Entypo regular still exists here, Chris:
Entypo Regular | 128 Glyphs / Daniel Bruce
https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/entypo
And
Entypo plus, 397 carefully crafted premium pictograms by Daniel Bruce are here:
https://github.com/chancancode/entypo-plus
I checked a dark corner of my filesystem and I still have Entypo and Pictos! Might have to bust these out again for old times’ sake.