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Creation of LAN
LANs were developed in the 1960s for use by colleges, universities, and research facilities (such as NASA), primarily used to connect computers to other computers. -
First Message ever sent
Two computers at Stanford and UCLA connected with each other for the first time. They were the first hosts on what would eventually become the Internet. The first message sent across the network was supposed to be “Login”, but reportedly, the link between the two colleges crashed on the letter “g”. -
Creation of ARPANET
Arpanet was the first real network to run on packet-switching technology (new at the time). ARPANET's main use was for academic and research purposes. The idea for ARPANET arose from a desire to share information over great distances without the need for dedicated phone connections between each computer on a network. However, Its initial purpose was to link computers at Pentagon-funded research institutions over telephone lines. -
Email Created
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 -
The PC modem
1977 was a big year for the development of the Internet. It’s the year the first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists. -
Usenet created
Usenet was created by two graduate students. 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. -
ENQUIRE Software created
The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) launched ENQUIRE which was a hypertext program that allowed scientists at the particle physics lab to keep track of people, software, and projects using hyperlinks. -
Domain Name System (DNS) is born
The domain name system was important as it made addresses on the Internet more easily understood compared to its numerical IP address counterparts. DNS servers allowed Internet users to type in an easily remembered domain name and then converted it to the IP address automatically. -
AOL is launched
Apple pulled out of the AppleLink program in 1989, and this project was renamed and America Online was born. AOL later made the Internet popular amongst average internet users. AOL offers Internet users services that include e-mail, AOL Instant Messenger software, AOL Video, video search, news, etc. -
Proposal for the World Wide Web
It was originally published in a newspaper called MacWorld, and then later redistributed. It was written to persuade CERN that a global hypertext system was in CERN’s best interest. It was originally called “Mesh." This term “World Wide Web” was created while Berners-Lee was writing the code in 1990. -
First commercial dial-up ISP
A commercial Internet Service Provider called “The World” was one of the earliest ISPs. It started serving customers in 1989. It was established by Joel Furr and started by providing a direct connection to the internet for businesses and home users in the San Francisco Bay Area. Before then, the Internet was only used by the military, research, and educational institutions and businesses. The World gave individual users access to the internet. -
World Wide Web protocols finished
The code for the World Wide Web was finally done being written and was based on the proposals of Time Berner-Lee. HTML, HTTP, and URLs were also created during this time. The Web was originally developed to meet the demand for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the world. -
First Search Engine
Alan Emtage, a college student in Montreal, created the first search engine for a school project, this search engine known as the Archie Index. -
Creation of the first Webpage
The first web page was created and similar to the first email sent explained what email was, it explained what the World Wide Web was. -
The World Wide Web is made public
The World Wide Web became available to the broader public and released into the public domain. It revolutionized the internet and allowed users to create websites filled with graphics, audio and hyperlinks. -
The first secure ecommerce transaction
The first item was purchased securely online. The item may have been a Sting CD, sold for $12.48 on Dan Kohn’s NetMarket. However, the Internet Shopping Network suggests their was also an online transaction for computer equipment a month prior to this purchase -
Commercialization of the Internet
After the first secure Internet transactions, the web became commercialized. Despite the fact there were commercial transactions online prior to 1995, there were a few key developments that happened that year. Firstly, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption was developed, making it safer to conduct financial transactions (like credit card payments) online. -
First Social Media Platform
Six Degrees is considered to be the first social media platform. It was founded in 1997 by Andrew Weinreich. It was a social networking site that offered popular features like customizable profiles, friends lists, school affiliations, and messaging. It lets you browse other users’ profiles, and join groups and forums, a first of its kind. -
The invention of Wi-Fi
In this year, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) approved the 802.11 standard for Wi-Fi. The system paved the way for a team at CSIRO to invent the Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) in the 1990s. The WLAN allowed devices to connect to a network through radio waves. -
Creation of Google
Google revolutionized the way people obtained and searched for information online. Google started as a research project in 1996 by two Stanford University graduate students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They were interested in developing a better way to search the World Wide Web, which was still in its early stages of development at the time. -
Wikipedia is launched
One of the most widely used online encyclopedias, Wikipedia, was launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, authors of an earlier web-based encyclopedia project Nupedia. Wikipedia became a collaborative, community-driven website for sharing knowledge. -
Iphones and the Mobile Web
the iPhone changed the landscape of the mobile phone industry and the mobile web. It introduced a powerful web browser, Safari, that allowed users to access and browse the internet on their mobile devices, changing the limited browsing experience to one similar to on the computer. This led web developers to focus on mobile optimization, ensuring that users can access websites on mobile devices with different screen sizes. -
ICANN policy changes
ICANN is a non-profit organization that keeps the Internet stable, secure, and unified globally. In 2009, ICANN implemented several policy changes that significantly impacted domain name registration and the general management of the internet. -
The Pandemic
People heavily relied on the Internet for everyday and professional use before COVID-19, but people's reliance on the Internet increased even more during the pandemic. The lockdown resulted in continuous social distancing, remote work and learning, and most people's social lives moving online and for the most part, changing the internet. -
Present
Currently, the internet is massive with billions of users on it daily. The internet has become a substantial part of our daily and social lives as we rely on it for conveniences such as online delivery or entertainment but also for communication with friends and family. Social Media has dominated the playing field and with the rise of new technology such as AI like ChatGPT in further development, it is uncertain how the internet will continue to evolve in the future.