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The World Wide Web begins as a CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) project called ENQUIRE, initiated by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee. Other names considered for the project include “The Information Mesh” and “The Mine of Information.” -
World’s first website and server go live at CERN, running on Tim Berners-Lee’s NeXT computer, which bears the message “This machine is a server. DO NOT POWER DOWN!” Tim Berners-Lee develops the first Web browser WorldWideWeb. -
Researchers rig up a live shot of a coffee pot so they could tell from their computer screens when a fresh pot had been brewed. Later connected to the World Wide Web, it becomes the first webcam. -
Tim Berners-Lee posts the first photo, of the band “Les Horribles Cernettes,” on the Web The term “surfing the internet” is coined and popularized. -
CERN places its World Wide Web technology in the public domain, donating it to the world. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) releases Mosaic 1.0, the first web browser to become popular with the general public. “The web as we know it begins to flourish,” Wired later writes.
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11 million American households are “equipped to ride the information superhighway.” One of the first known Web purchases takes place: a pepperoni pizza with mushrooms and extra cheese from Pizza Hut. Yahoo! is created by Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo. They originally named the site “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web.” -
18 million American homes are now online, but only 3% of online users have ever signed on to the World Wide Web. Amazon.com opens for business, billing itself as the “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore. Craig Newmark starts craigslist, originally an email list of San Francisco events. -
77% of online users send or receive e-mail at least once every few weeks, up from 65% in 1995. Nokia releases the Nokia 9000 Communicator, the first cellphone with internet capabilities. HoTMaiL launches as one of the world’s first Webmail services, its name a reference to the HTML internet language used to build webpages. -
Millions “visit Mars – on the internet” – the Jet Propulsion Lab allows people to watch the Sojourner rover landing and exploration of Mars. The broadcast generates about 40 million to 45 million hits each day. Millions “visit Mars – on the internet” – the Jet Propulsion Lab allows people to watch the Sojourner rover landing and exploration of Mars. The broadcast generates about 40 million to 45 million hits each day. -
20% of Americans get news from the internet at least once a week, up from 4% in 1995. AOL launches AOL 4.0 and inundates American homes with CD-ROM mailers. AOL membership jumps from 8 million to 16 million members. -
MP3 downloading service Napster launches, overloading high-speed networks in college dormitories. Many colleges ban the service and it is later shut down for enabling the illegal sharing of music files. -
43% of internet users say they would miss going online “a lot,” up from 32% in 1995. 78% of internet users who download music don’t think it’s stealing to save music files to their computer hard drives. -
Only 3% of internet users say they got most of their information about the 9/11 attacks and the aftermath from the internet. Only 3% of internet users say they got most of their information about the 9/11 attacks and the aftermath from the internet. Jimmy Wales launches Wikipedia. Users write over 20,000 encyclopedia entries in the first year.
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55 million people now go online from work and 44% of those who have internet access at work say their use of the internet helps them do their jobs. Social networking site Friendster.com launches, but is quickly overtaken by Facebook. Microsoft launches Xbox Live, its online multiplayer gaming service.”Critics scoffed at the idea, noting how uncommon broadband connections were at the time." -
Apple launches the iTunes Music Store with 200,000 songs at 99¢ each. The store sells one million songs in its first week. Skype, a voice-over-IP calling and instant messaging service, launches and quickly becomes a verb, as in “Skype me.” -
11% of American internet users follow the returns on election night online. One-in-ten internet users sign up for political email newsletters and news alerts during the campaign. Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launches thefacebook.com. 1,200 Harvard students sign up within the first 24 hours. Facebook goes on to become the world’s biggest social networking site, with over a billion users worldwide. -
YouTube is founded on Valentine’s Day. 8% of adult American internet users say they participate in sports fantasy leagues online. 9% of internet users (13 million Americans) went online to donate money to the victims of Gulf Coast hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
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The late Senator Ted Stevens describes the internet as “a series of tubes,” during a 2006 speech on net neutrality. His quote is mocked by Boing Boing and the Daily Show and inspires YouTube remixes. Google acquires YouTube for $1.65 billion. YouTube founders Chad and Steve announce the Google acquisition in a “>video recorded in a parking lot: “The king of search and the king of video have gotten together."
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36% of Americans say they would have a hard time giving up their Blackberry or other wireless email device, up from 6% in 2002. Apple releases its first iPhone, priced at $499 for 4GB and $599 for 8G. Estonia becomes the world’s first country to use internet voting in a parliamentary election. -
Google releases the Chrome Web browser. HTML5 is introduced. Apple launches its App Store with 552 applications. Three-quarters (74%) of internet users – or 55% of the entire U.S. adult population — say they went online during the presidential election to take part in or get news and information about the campaign.
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Microsoft’s Bing search engine launches. Twitter raises $98 million from investors, valuing the company at a whopping $1 billion. The Web is transfixed by the tale of a six-year-old boy flying over Colorado in a weather balloon. The story later proves to be a hoax. -
Social photo-sharing sites Pinterest and Instagram launch. 35% of adults have cell phones with apps, but only two-thirds actually use them. -
15% of social media-using teens say they have been the target of online meanness. 68% of all Americans say the internet has had a major impact on the ability of groups to communicate with members. LinkedIn reaches 100 million users and debuts on NYSE.
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66% of internet users use Facebook and 12% use Instagram. Among the 13% of US adults who made a financial contribution to a presidential candidate, 50% donated online or via email.
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A majority (56%) of Americans now own a smartphone of some kind. 51% of U.S. adults bank online. Former CIA employee and NSA contractor Edward Snowden turns over thousands of classified documents to media organizations, exposing a top-secret government data surveillance program. -
45% of internet users ages 18-29 in serious relationships say the internet has had an impact on their relationship. Facebook buys messaging app Whatsapp for $19 billion.