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Tim BernersLee releases web software
Tim BernersLee formally introduced his world wide web project to the world on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. In the post he said the project "aims to allow links to be made to any detrmation anywhere". It did this by using hypertext a method for linking between different documents. Although invented many years earlier Mr BernersLees invention married hypertext with the internet. He also made available all of the files neces -
First web server outside Europe goes online
Following a trip the Cern labs near Geneva where he met Tim BernersLee scientist Paul Kunz of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Slac in the US was inspired to set up North Americas first web server. This was the next link in the chain necessary to send the web worldwide. A server is a computer that stores and delivers web pages to other computers. The Slac server used the software developed by Mr BernersLee -
There are 26 web servers online
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Mosaic web browser for Windows is released
Mosaic was the first web browser to run on the Windows operating system. It was developed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in the US. It allowed the general public to navigate the growing amount of detrmation on the web in a userfriendly way. -
Cern announces that the World Wide Web can be used for free by anyone
Tim BernersLee and Robert Cailliau manage to persuade Cern to provide the web technology and program code for free so that anyone can use and improve it. The decision is credited as one of the key reasons the web grew so quickly. -
The Tech is published
The Tech published by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology becomes the first online newspaper. -
HTML programming language used to create webpages
June, 1993
HTML programming language used to create webpages is released -
First Webcam
The webcam was set up by a group of computer scientists at Cambridge University. Frustrated at having to navigate several flights of stairs in search of coffee only to find the pot empty the academics installed a webcam to monitor the brew. The system was taken offline in 2001 and the percolator sold to the German news magazine Spiegel Online. -
The precursor to Yahoo written by two US students goes online
Yahoo was started by Stanford University students David Filo and Jerry Yang. It was originally called "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" a site featuring a hierarchical directory of other sites. It was renamed Yahoo soon after. The name stands for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle. Some net ranking firms say that Yahoo is the most visited site on the web today. -
Banner advertisements
Banner adverts for network firm ATT and a drink called Zima appear on websites. -
1st full-time web radio station
Radio HK becomes the first fulltime web radio station -
Online bookstore Amazon.com launched
The online book store was originally founded as Cadabra.com by Jeff Bezos in 1994. It was one of the first major companies to sell goods on the web. Although it started as an online bookstore it now sells music electronics furniture and even food. -
Number of Websites is growing
There are now 18957 websites online -
Dotcom boom begins on the stock markets
A number of web companies go public. Web browser company Netscape receive the 3rd largest ever NASDAQ IPO share value. The dotcom bubble" began in 1997 after which stock markets around the world saw their value increase rapidly from investment in web startups. The bubble was marked by the founding and failure of many web based companies known as the dotcoms. -
Internet Explorer is released
Microsofts' Internet Explorer released as part of Windows 95 -
Online auction site eBay founded as Auctionweb
The auction site was founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar as Auctionweb. The first item ever sold was a broken laser pointer for 13.83. It has since become the world's largest online auction site with thousands of transactions taking place every day. -
Alta Vista launched
First multilingual search engine Alta Vista launched -
Hotmail
Hotmail is launched on Independence Day in the US -
Webblog
Web commentator Jorn Barger coins the term weblog later shortened to blog -
Kozmo.com that promised free onehour delivery of anything launches
Kozmo.com was founded by investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang. The company promised free onehour delivery of anything from DVDs to coffee. The company raised about 280 million including 60 million from Amazon.com. Many analysts pointed out that the business model would not work. The company collapsed in April 2001 one of the casualties of the bursting dot com bubble. -
Google opens its 1st office
The search giant began as a research project by two postgraduate students Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. The search engine they designed analysed the relationships between websites to rank their importance. Until September 1997 the search engine used the Stanford University website with the domain google.stanford.edu. The name is a misspelling of the word googol. The search engine -
Open Diary launches
Open diary the first blog community launches -
Everquest is released
Everquest a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game is released. -
Napster is founded, by Shawn Fanning a student in Boston
Napster was the first widely used peertopeer file sharing service. Fanning wrote the original program at college to allow him and his friends to find and share mp3 files. The program was officially released on 01 June 1999. It immediately caught the attention of the recording industry who accused it of massive copyright theft. After a protracted legal battle the service was shutdown in July 2001. A legal service wa -
Original MySpace website launched as a file sharing service
MySpace was originally an online storage and file sharing firm but was shutdown in 2001. The social networking site in its present form launched in July 2003. It was set up 2003 by Tom Anderson Chris DeWolfe and a small team of programmers. It now has close to 100 million users. The site lets users build a personalised home page. It also contains blogs photos music and a messaging system. In 2005 M -
AOL buys Time Warner
AOL buy Time Warner for 162bn the largest corporate merger ever -
Websites continue to grow
Nearly 20 million websites online -
1st Podcast
A Grateful Dead track demonstrates podcasting for the first time -
Wikipedia founded
Online encyclopedia Wikipedia is founded by Jimmy Wales -
Google awarded patent
Google awarded a patent for its PageRank algorithm used in its search engine -
iTunes launches
Apples iTunes music download service launches -
Mozilla Firefox launched
Mozilla Firefox web browser launched -
YouTube launches
Video sharing site youtube.com goes online -
Web continues to grow
The web grows more in 2005 than during the whole dot com boom. 17 million new sites go online