The History of the Internet

ARPANET

1969

The first workable prototype of the internet was ARPANET, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). It connected four universities: UCLA, Stanford, UCSB, and the University of Utah. ARPANET allowed researchers to share data and resources across geographically dispersed locations.

The First Email

1971

Ray Tomlinson created the first email system on ARPANET, revolutionizing communication.

TCP/IP Development

1973

Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn develop the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), which become the standard for how computers communicate over the internet.

Ethernet

1974

Robert Metcalfe invents Ethernet, a protocol for local area networks (LANs) that allows for faster and more efficient connections.

The First Online Game

1974

Apple Founded

1976

Apple is founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, laying the groundwork for personal computing.

Invention of GIF

1987

Animated GIFs won't arrive until 1989 and they won't repeat until 1995

Internet Attack

1988

First major malicious internet-based worm attack was released, referred to as “The Morris Worm”.

Dawn of the World Wide Web

1989

Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web (WWW) to help researchers access documents over the internet, laying the groundwork for the modern web.

The first Website

1990

Tim Berners-Lee creates the first website, which was dedicated to explaining the concept of the World Wide Web.

First Webcam

1991

The web becomes public

1991

Amazon and eBay Founded

1995

Google Founded

1998

Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, revolutionizing internet search and data organization.

MySpace and LinkedIn

2003

Facebook Launched

2004

Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg, initially as a social network for college students. It would soon become the dominant social media platform worldwide.

YouTube

2005

leading platform for online video sharing.

IPhone Launches

2007

Apple launches the iPhone, marking a turning point in mobile internet access, leading to the rise of smartphones and mobile web applications.

Instagram Founded

2010

Instagram launches as a photo-sharing social network, and rapidly grows into one of the most popular social media platforms.

Snapchat and TikTok

2011

Snapchat (2011) and TikTok (2016) introduce new forms of short-form content, marking the shift towards mobile-first, ephemeral, and video-based social media.

Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa

2016

Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are introduced, pushing voice-based AI and smart home technologies forward.

AI

2023

Artificial intelligence is integrated more deeply into internet services, from chatbots and customer service to content creation and data analytics. AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E become part of everyday internet use.