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The Beginning
The origins of the Internet date back nearly 40 years, with the U.S. military's funding of a research network dubbed arparent in 1969 -
Connected
Arpanet was created, it connected five sites: UCLA, Stanford, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Utah and BBN. -
The Military
In 1983, the U.S. Defense Department spun-off MILNET*, which was the part of Arpanet that carried unclassified military communications. -
New Name
Arpanet was renamed the Internet in 1984, when it linked 1,000 hosts at university and corporate labs.
MILNET was later re-named the Defense Data Network and finally NIPRNET, for Non-classified IP Router Network. -
Internet Hosts
The number of computers connected to the Internet has grown dramatically from the network's humble beginnings, when it connected four computers at university research labs -
1 Billion
Internet usage has exploded since 1995, when researchers first started tracking this statistic. Although estimates vary from the Internet having 1 billion to 1.5 billion users, everyone agrees that the 'Net has room for growth as the worldwide population tops 6 billion. -
Private Domain
In 1998, the U.S. Department of Commerce privatized domain name registrations and operations through the creation of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Since then, domain name sales have risen nearly 10-fold, but .com remains the most popular domain -
Spam
in 2003, an estimated 15 billion spam messages were sent over the Internet daily. That means 45% of all e-mail messages were unsolicited pitches for things such as drugs and penny stocks. -
Iphones
Iphones at this time has become a huge part of surfing the web. Almost everyone has an iphone, and can surf the web whenever and whereever they are. -
New Tech
Experts say the Internet will continue along its phenomenal growth path, despite the current global economic crisis. What's different is that the Internet will become increasingly mobile and social. By 2012, more people will access the Internet via cell phones than PCs
