The first computer to receive a message on what became the Internet, an SDS Sigma 7 at the Stanford Research Institute.
The Internet (1969- ) turns 50 this year. On the night of October 29th 1969 the first two characters (“L” and “O”) were sent from UCLA to the Stanford Research Institute on the ARPANET, the computer network that would become the Internet. It crashed on the third character (“G”). It has since been improved.
Stages:
- 1970s: scientists, funded by the Pentagon (US military)
- 1980s: early adopters, email, bulletin boards.
- 1990s: consumers (online services), dial-up access, websites, search engines.
- 2000s: wireless, streaming video
- 2010s: smartphones, social media.
The % of the world online:
- 1995: 0.4%
- 2000: 6%
- 2005: 15%
- 2010: 29%
- 2015: 45%
In 2017 it passed 50%. It now stands at 57% of everyone in the world.
Timeline: Because it can take time for things to catch on, some things are older than you think (top websites of 2019 in blue letters):
- 1960s
- 1969: ARPANET – Pentagon works on creating a computer network designed to function during nuclear war.
- 1970s
- 1980s
- 1980:
- 1981:
- 1982: 🙂
- 1983: ARPANET officially changes to TCP/IP
- 1984: domain names (DNS)
- 1985: .com
- 1986:
- 1987: GIF, new word: hyperlink
- 1988: IRC (real-time chat), hashtags
- 1989: AOL
- 1990s
- 1990: IMDb, Stormfront
- 1991: The Web (Tim Berners-Lee invents HTTP and creates the first website and web browser), Gopher (content-based search engine), MP3, webcam, Linux
- 1992: trolls, JPEG
- 1993: Mosaic (first graphical web browser used by the public), HTML, LOL, .gov, .org, Wired magazine
- 1994: Internet Era begins in the US, Netscape, Yahoo!, WebCrawler, the first Internet purchase (Pizza Hut)
- 1995: Amazon, eBay, Craigslist, Geocities, Java, JavaScript, Internet Explorer, Firefly.com (collaborative filtering), Patricia Ford photos, AltaVista, Lycos
- 1996: flat monthly pricing (AOL), Hotmail (free web-based email), MapQuest, Sohu, Bayesian spam filter
- 1997: Babelfish, TerraServer, Slashdot, Drudge Report website, AOL Messenger (AIM).
- 1998: Google, PayPal, portals, “You’ve got mail!”, the first big news story to break on the Internet first (Monicagate on the Drudge Report), QQ, Sina.com.cn, JD.com
- 1999: Y2K, Napster, blogs, Blogger, LiveJournal, everything2, BlackPlanet, SETI@home
- 2000s
- 2000: Dot.com Bubble bursts, Pandora, Baidu
- 2001: Wikipedia, BitTorrent, WayBack Machine, Google Images, iPod
- 2002: Firefox, Google News, net neutrality
- 2003: MySpace, O RLY?, WordPress, Taobao, Skype, iTunes store, LinkedIn, 4Chan, Golden Shield in China
- 2004: Facebook, Gmail, Flickr, Digg, Google Books, Alipay, OkCupid
- 2005: YouTube, viral videos, cat videos, Google Maps, Google Earth, Panoramio, Etsy, Reddit, Huffington Post, Live.com, 360.cn
- 2006: Twitter, BuzzFeed, Chescaleigh, Amazon’s cloud, VK
- 2007: iPhone, Hulu (television shows online), Kindle, Tumblr, Google Street View, Google Translate, WikiLeaks, PornHub, Vsauce, Rage comics, rickrolling, LOLCats, “Good morning, Hank”
- 2008: DropBox, Spotify, Russian hackers, Pepe memes, trollface, Google Chrome, The Root, Tmail
- 2009: Bitcoin, Uber, Kickstarter, WhatsApp, Bing, Vevo, Weibo, Keep Calm memes, the like button.
- 2010s
- 2010: Netflix video streaming, Instagram, iPad, Chelsea Manning (WikiLeaks), IISuperwomanII,
- 2011: Snapchat, Siri, Russian trolls, Arab Spring
- 2012: Tinder, top buzzword: selfie, Cinnamon challenge goes viral, Heavy.com news, Shit White Girls Say, Kony 2012
- 2013: Edward Snowden (WikiLeaks), Vine, Yik Yak, Google Glass, The Daily Stormer, Blockbuster video rental stores closed, unsolicited dick pics
- 2014: #BlackLivesMatter, rise of Black Twitter, Black Spring, Gamergate, Ice Bucket challenge, Utah Data Center, Vox
- 2015: rise of Donald Trump, #BlackOutDay, Facebook live streaming
- 2016: Guccifer 2.0 (WikiLeaks)
- 2017:
- 2018: net neutrality protections repealed in US
- 2019:
– Abagond, 2019.
See also:
- Internet
- also the 50th anniversary of:
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Abagond 
I miss Geo cities. I used to get a lot of good info there.
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Thanks for such concise info. Great overview!
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You can fall down a rabbit hole on You Tube and memes and gifs are fun. Twitter (aka The Bird) is super addicting.
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RIP to Vine
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it’s funny how, generally speaking, a lot of the most profoundly effective tools or processes were discovered and/or developed by the government. How then does the private sector get to charge us for this if the seed money came from us? (Taxes)
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[…] https://abagond.wordpress.com/2019/07/30/the-internet-a-brief-history/ […]
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Plus, I love Amazon and Netflix.
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2003: “The Internet is for Porn” (Avenue Q musical)
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Forgot this one
http://www.juliandibbell.com/articles/a-rape-in-cyberspace/
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Twitter is so addicting.
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Tonight the Internet turns 50!
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Reblogged this on Steph's Blog and commented:
A lot of things have changed in the past 20 years. I’ve been on the internet since 1996, when I first worked at the library in a medium-sized Midwestern City. Back in the 90s, the internet connection was slow, there weren’t too many retail that connect nor there were a large number of bloggers online. Today, one have internet connection at the touch of a cellphone, television(thanks, ROKU!), Kindle, etc. instead of a traditional desktop computer.
It’s been an exciting first 20 years of 2000. It’s going to get even more so as the years pass by.
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you really missed the whole bitcoin crypto currency boat abagond
if we had invested in bitcoin back when this blog started
we would be multimillionaires now.:-(
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Added:
2009: the like button.
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