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ARPANET is Founded and Continues to Grow
Also known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, ARPANET was a large wide-area network created by the United States Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA). It served as a sort of "testing site" for new networking technologies and it was the genesis of the internet as we know it today. -
The First At-Home Computer
A personal computer is one intended for interactive individual use and has evidently changed the way we get our information. They allowed for the internet to eventually be available to the general public from their very own homes and just made life easier. With the establishment of the first at-home computer, technology was qucikly becoming a large part of our everyday lives. -
Top Level Domains are Introduced
Introduced by Jon Postel, Top Level Domains to the public which essentially, "democratized" the internet and network addresses. The reason they were so important is because theses domains serve the purpose in helping to classify a feature of a website ie. it's owner or geographical region. Some examples of Top Level Domains are: ".com", ".gov", or ".org." -
"The Morris Worm"
One of the first major Internet worms was released in 1988 and was also on of the first major malicious internet-based attacks. Referred to as “The Morris Worm”, it was written by Robert Tappan Morris and caused major interruptions across large parts of the Internet. -
Photoshop is Introduced
Created by American brothers Thomas and John Knoll, Photoshop was created because they wanted an easy and efficient way to edit photos. Eventually, the brothers sold the distribution license to Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1988, who later released the platform in 1990. Now, Photoshop is the most widely used photo editing tool and changed digital editing forever. -
The Mosaic Browser is Released
Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina launched Mosaic, "the first popular web browser. The reason Mosaic gained and maintained popularity so quickly was because it was fast and allowed users to see images embedded on pages. Without the introduction of Mosaic, web pages wouldn't be the same today. -
The World Wide Web Goes Live
Four years after publishing a proposal for “an idea of linked information systems,” computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee released the source code for the world’s first web browser and editor. Essentially, the browser that he called the World Wide Web became the first royalty-free and user friendly means of browsing the emerging information network that developed into the internet as we know it today. -
Secure Sockets Layer Encryption
Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, encryption was developed by Netscape in 1994. The purpose was to make it safer to conduct financial transactions, such as credit card payments, online. -
Netscape is Released
Created by Marc Andreessen, Netscape essentially made the internet accessible to everyday people. It was a simpler browser that the public could use so, similar to Mosaic, it was very user friendly. Some have called it "the gateway to the early web." -
Amazon Comes into Fruiton
Founded by Jeff Bezos, what first started out as an online book sale website, quickly turned into the largest online store in the world. It has been referred to as "one of the most influential economic and cultural forces in the world". The creation of Amazon heavily influenced the way products were sold and advertised online. -
Hotmail Makes Life Easier
Hotmail became available to the public as the "world's first free web-based email provider." It allowed for users to send and receive messages fast and easily. Hotmail was very popular among the public, but eventually lost it's traction and was bought and changed into Microsoft Outlook in February of 2013. Essentially, it was one of the first and most popular means of messaging when the internet was gaining popularity. -
Wifi Becomes Commercially Available
First released in 1997, wifi has become a crucial aspect of millions of people lives and continues to evolve and get better with time. Wifi allows for users on numerous different devices such as smartphones, laptops, tablets etc. to access the internet in a fast add efficient way. It's obvious that the introduction of wifi has changed the way the world runs today. -
Napster Changes the Music Field
Napster allowed for users to access and share files, most of them being music, without restriction or consequences. This application revolutionized the music industry and the way it was shared, paving the way for big apps such as Spotify and Apple Music. -
Google and it's Meteoric Rise
First created in September of 1998, Google has become the most popular search engine used today as well as the most visited website. Activity began to explode in 2000, when Google became the client search engine for one of the Web’s most popular sites, Yahoo!. By 2004, there was approximately 200 million searches on Google each day. -
Social Media Gains Traction
The term “social media”, believed to be first used by Chris Sharpley, was coined and is commonly used today. Social media ccan be generally defined as sites and web applications that allow its users to create and share content and to connect with one another starting around the mid-late 2000's. To set it all off was Digg, a social news site, launched in November of 2004, and it paved the way for sites such as Reddit, Mixx, and Yahoo! Buzz. -
YouTube is Introduced to the Public
Launched by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, YouTube has quickly become the largest video streaming and sharing site. The original hope for the website was that users could upload, share, and view content without restriction. It revolutionized the world of video as we know it today. -
Netflix Offers Streaming
With it's initial creation in 1997, as a movie rental service, and it's transition into a digital streaming service in 2007, Netflix has easily become the foremost streaming service of our day and age. The transition from physical media to digital made it easier for consumer to rent and watch shows and movies, to the point where digitals copies are almost obsolete in comparison. Essentially, it changed the way the general public consumes media. -
Apple Introduces the First iPhone
Founded by Steve Jobs, Apple created the iPhone and it quickly became one of the most popular smartphones amongst the public. Over the years, the product has continued to change and get better. With it's release, mobile internet usage was revolutionized forever. -
The Rise in Virtual Reality
First making it's appearance in the 1970's virtual reality has been made increasingly more popular and mainstream throughout the mid 2010's. Many believe VR to be the future of the market, education, businesses and many other things. A company that compiles data about the industry, said it expected sales of stand-alone V.R. headsets to grow 30 percent in 2020. With it's rise in popularity, we can once again see the virtual world taking over the digital. -
The Introduction of 5G Network
Designed to have faster speeds, larger capacity and reduced latency, 5G is expected to be the key for innovation in tomorrow's future. In particular, increased speeds can open new opportunities in public safety and business. Essentially, 5G is what all our devices will be running on and based on in the coming years and shows that technology is , once again, being revolutionized to make our lives easier.