-
During the 60’s was the inception of Unix: the operating system whose design heavily influenced that of Linux and FreeBSD (the operating systems most popular in today’s web servers/web hosting services). -
In 1969, the ARPANET was born – the first real network that let computers talk to each other. The first message was supposed to be “LOGIN,” but the system crashed after just the first two letters.
Despite this rocky start, the ARPANET was a big deal. It showed that computers could work together and share information. -
The company that created the “interface message processor” computers used to connect to the network, established.
-
Email was first developed in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, who also made the decision to use the “@” symbol to separate the user name from the computer name. -
Arpanet made its first trans-Atlantic connection in 1973, with the University College of London. During the same year, email accounted for 75% of all Arpanet network activity.
-
With the popularity of emailing, the first modern email program was developed by John Vittal, a programmer at the University of Southern California in 1975. -
It’s the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists.
-
The precursor to World of Warcraft and Second Life was developed in 1979, and was called MUD (short for MultiUser Dungeon). MUDs were entirely text-based virtual worlds, combining elements of role-playing games, interactive, fiction, and online chat. -
Usenet was an internet-based discussion system, allowing people from around the globe to converse about the same topics by posting public messages categorized by newsgroups.
-
While many people credit Kevin MacKenzie with the invention of the emoticon in 1979, it was Scott Fahlman in 1982 who proposed using :-) after a joke, rather than the original -) proposed by MacKenzie.
-
The original Arpanet protocol had been limited to 1,000 hosts, but the adoption of the TCP/IP standard made larger numbers of hosts possible.
-
It was originally published in the March issue of MacWorld, and then redistributed in May 1990. It was written to persuade CERN that a global hypertext system was in CERN’s best interest. It was originally called “Mesh”; the term “World Wide Web” was coined while Berners-Lee was writing the code in 1990.
-
When Apple pulled out of the AppleLink program in 1989, the project was renamed and America Online was born. -
The code for the World Wide Web was written by Tim Berners-Lee, based on his proposal from the year before, along with the standards for HTML, HTTP, and URLs.
-
By 1995, the internet had started to change how we communicate, shop, and do business. This was the year when the internet’s commercial potential really took off, with the launch of companies like Amazon, Craigslist, and eBay.
-
Google entered the scene in August 1996, the brainchild of Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Originally hosted on Stanford’s network and significantly consuming its bandwidth, Google was distinctive for using PageRank. This algorithm determined a website’s relevance based on the number and quality of links pointing to it. This novel approach allowed Google to return more relevant and useful search results than its competitors.
-
The 2000s marked a major shift from the slow dial-up internet to fast broadband that’s always on. This change was huge. It meant the internet was quicker, more reliable, and it didn’t tie up your phone line.
-
Following the move to broadband, 2001 introduced another game-changer: 3G networks. This was the third generation of wireless mobile telecommunications tech, bringing faster internet right to our phones.
-
Between 2001 and 2005, the internet witnessed rapid innovation and the birth of platforms that forever changed how we connect and share online. To name a few: Wikipedia (2001)
LinkedIn (2003)
Myspace (2003)
Skype (2003)
iTunes Store (2003)
Facebook (2004)
YouTube (2005)
Reddit (2005) -
The smartphone revolution began in earnest on June 29, 2007, with the launch of the first iPhone. It represented a complete overhaul of what mobile devices could do. -
The 2010s will be remembered as the era when social media and streaming services truly took over. Platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter went from being trendy apps to essential parts of our daily lives, reshaping how we communicate, consume news, and express ourselves. -
In 2014, mobile internet usage surpassed desktops for the first time. This milestone reflected a significant change in user behavior and device preference, with smartphones becoming the primary means of accessing the internet for many people. -
The period of 2019 to 2020 marked a significant chapter in the history of the internet timeline with the rollout of 5G networks, setting the stage for faster and more reliable internet connections worldwide. This technological leap came at a crucial time, as the COVID-19 pandemic forced a global shift to remote work.