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ENIAC 1 was the first computer that could do complex computations electronically.
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ARPANET was the DOD's answer to the question, "What happens if the Soviets bomb one of our computers?" By networking computers and spreading them out across the U.S., the DOD could prevent the complete and utter destruction of all of their data. This network of computers and the technology and enginneering that was necessary to make it became the Internet. http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ii_arpanet.htm
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Unix is the operating system that is run on most servers and was invented by Bell Labs.
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The Intel 4004 was a general purpose microprocessor. The microprocessor allowed computers to get smaller and smaller, yet also faster and faster. Once computers were able to run complex code extremely quickly, the burdensomeprogramming of the Internet would no longer be so burdensome.
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The date for this is uncertain, but in 1972 Ray Tomlinson, one of the contractors working on ARPANET, wrote the basic read and senc programs for e-mail. He also chose the @ symbol to denote a message being sent to another computer.
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TCP/IP is a standard Internet protocol to connect computers that may not be using the same software.
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The Ethernet cable was invented by Xerox between 1973 and 1974. It has become the standard connecting cable for computers and networks.
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The IBM PC was cheap and it worked. It brought computers into the office and into some homes. Once computers started moving into homes, the stage was beginning to be set for the Internet. It could expand from its roots as a way of communicating between university researchers and military personel.It could be made personal.
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MS-DOS was an operating system made by microsoft to be used with IBM's coputers. It spread to other computer systems as well. It was one of the first operating systems for personal computers.
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The Apple Macintosh was an affordable personal computer with a graphic user interface and a mouse.
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AOL (America Online) was a ubiquitous Internet Company during the infancy of the Internet. Its importance has waned in recent years.
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The first ISP was called "The World." It was first made available in November of 1989.
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Hytlenet was a precursor to the World Wide Web. It was supposed to be an easier interface for accessing the Internet.
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Gopher was a protocol that was overtaken by HTTP but was very important in its day.
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Tim Berners Lee was working at CERN in the early 90s when he created a new structure for documents to be put on the Internet. He developed a system of programs and software to connect servers that became the World Wide Web.
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In 1992 a picture of the singing group "Les Horribles Cernettes" was put on to the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web was invented by CERN and the women in the picture were connected to CERN. http://musiclub.web.cern.ch/MusiClub/bands/cernettes/firstband.html
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Mosaic was the first graphical web browser. It was the grandfather of most web browsers today, at least in style.
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Tim Berners Lee developed the basic software for an Internet server and the World Wide Web in 1989 and released the Web to the public in 1991. The World Wide Web became truly public in 1993 when the code that was necessary to run a web server and a web browser were released into the public domain for anyone to use.
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Netscape was the first commercially successful web browser. It paved the way for other web browsers like internet explorer, firefox, and chrome. It opened up the internet to a broader audience and made it easier to go online. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NetscapeLogo_6.png
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Jeff Bezos Incorporated a company called Cadaver which was later changed to Amazon. Amazon has become one of the largest online retailers in the world.
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Internet Explorer was first released as a part of an add on package for Windows 95. Internet Explorer was one of the most popular web browsers for a time unitl better browsers like Firefox and Chrome were released.
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The Nokia Communicator 9000 was the first cell phone with the ability to connect to the Internet.
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Google.com is the most popular search engine today, It seems that it has achieved its goal to organize the whole Internet. Google has become a company that is impossible to get away from on the Internet; it has become omnipresent as well as omniscient.
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The Dot Com Bubble was a bubble fueled by money pouring into Internet startups that turned out to be unable to make a profit. Investors looked to the future of the world and saw tech companies showering them in money, they saw that the Internet was the way of the future. They were right, but they didn't put their money in the right places. They didn't do their research and they got caught up in the fervor of the moment. The bubble burst, leaving the Internet in tatters, but not dead.
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Wikipedia has become the repository of all human knowledge. It was based on the idea that there would be no centralized editing.
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Friendster is the grandaddy of social networking sites. It was the largest widespread social network on the Internet until it was overtaken by MySpace. It allowed users to send messages to other users as well as online content of all kinds. It is now lost in the annals of history, but it was the beginning of the social media revolution.
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One of the three founders of YouTube uploaded a video of himself at the San Diego Zoo to their young website in 2005. It went on to grow at an amazing pace, becoming the one stop shop for all things video. http://socialmediainfluence.com/2011/05/27/10-youtube-videos-that-changed-business-big-and-small/
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Twitter has become a very important social networking site. It limits users to 140 characters so you aren't overloaded by long rants, but it also allows constant, real time updates of what is going on around the world. The Arab Spring would not have been the big deal it was around the world without social networking sites like Twitter.
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The iPhone was not the first smartphone, but it did bring smartphones into the public eye.
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Google Fiber is Google's foray into the ISP business. It supplies 1 gigabit/s speeds which is about 100 times faster than the fastest Internet plan offered by Citizens Cablevision.
