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Electronic Mail
Electronic mail is introduced by Ray Tomlinson, a Cambridge, Mass., computer scientist. He uses the @ to distinguish between the sender's name and network name in the email address. -
The Birth of Spam Mail
The Birth of Spam (1978) The world's first spam mail was sent in May 1978 by Gary Thuerk, who sent a message to hundreds of ARPA users. -
Domain Name System (DNS) is established
Domain Name System (DNS) is established, with network addresses identified by extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu.
Writer William Gibson coins the term “cyberspace.“ -
The first search engine
The first search engine (1990) In 1990, Alan Emtage from Monreal, Canada, developed the first search engine, Archie. -
The White House launches its website
The White House launches its website, www.whitehouse.gov.
Initial commerce sites are established and mass marketing campaigns are launched via email, introducing the term “spamming“ to the Internet vocabulary.
Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark start Netscape Communications. They introduce the Navigator browser. -
ARPANET turns on
On October 29, 1969, the first ARPANET message was sent from a computer at UCLA to one located at Stanford University—well, part of a message, anyway. -
Napster and Wikipedia
Napster is dealt a potentially fatal blow when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rules that the company is violating copyright laws and orders it to stop distributing copyrighted music. The file-swapping company says it is developing a subscription-based service.
About 9.8 billion electronic messages are sent daily.
Wikipedia is created. -
Internet is rising
As of January, 58.5% of the U.S. population (164.14 million people) uses the Internet. Worldwide there are 544.2 million users.
The death knell tolls for Napster after a bankruptcy judge ruled in September that German media giant Bertelsmann cannot buy the assets of troubled Napster Inc. The ruling prompts Konrad Hilbers, Napster CEO, to resign and lay off his staff.