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In the beginning of 1986, the number of networks grows from 2,000 to nearly 30,000.TCP/IP is available on workstations and PCs such as the newly introduced Compaq portable computer. Ethernet is becoming accepted for wiring inside buildings and across campuses.
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1987: Network management starts to become a major issue and it becomes clear that a protocol is needed between routers to allow remote management. SNMP is chosen as a simple, quick, near term solution
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1988: The upgrade of the NSFNET backbone to T1 completes and the Internet starts to become more international with the connection of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.
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1989: World.std.com becomes the first commercial provider of dial-up access to the Internet.
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1990: Tim Berners-Lee developed HyperText Markup Language (HTML): impacted on how we navigate and view the Internet today.
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1991: CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) introduced the World Wide Web (WWW) to public.
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1992: The Internet becomes such a part of the computing establishment that a professional society forms to guide it on its way. The Internet Society (ISOC), with Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn among its founders, validates the coming of age of inter-networking and its pervasive role in the lives of professionals in developed countries.
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1993: Over 600 websites were created. Marc Andreesen developed the Mosaic Web browser at the Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
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1994: Yahoo! Is created Jerry Yang and David Filo; this company is later incorporated in March.
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1995: The first online dating site, Match.com, was launched.
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1996: The browser war between Microsoft and Netscape heated up.
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Netflix was founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph
PC makers can remove or hide Microsoft’s Internet software on new versions of Windows 95, thanks to a settlement with the Justice Department. Netscape announces that its browser will be free. -
1998: The Google search engine is born, changing the way users engage with the Internet.
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2000: The dot-com bubble bursts. Web sites such as Yahoo! and eBay are hit by a large-scale denial of service attack, highlighting the vulnerability of the Internet. AOL merges with Time Warner
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2001: A federal judge shuts down Napster, ruling that it must find a way to stop users from sharing copyrighted material before it can go back online.
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2003: The SQL Slammer worm spread worldwide in just 10 minutes. Myspace, Skype and the Safari Web browser debut.
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Facebook goes online and the era of social networking begins. Mozilla unveils the Mozilla Firefox browser.
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2005: YouTube.com launches. The social news3 site Reddit is also founded.
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2006: AOL changes its business model, offering most services for free and relying on advertising to generate revenue. The Internet Governance Forum meets for the first time.
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2007- Internet2 officially retires Abilene and now refers to its new, higher capacity network as the Internet2 Network
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2008 – NASA successfully tests the first deep space communications network modeled on the Internet. Using software called Disruption-Tolerant Networking, or DTN, dozens of space images are transmitted to and from a NASA science spacecraft located about more than 32 million kilometers from Earth
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The Internet marks its 40th anniversary.
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2010: Facebook reaches 400 million active users.
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2011: Twitter and Facebook play a large role in the Middle East revolts.
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2012: President Barack Obama's administration announces its opposition to major parts of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Intellectual Property Act, which would have enacted broad new rules requiring internet service providers to police copyrighted content.
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2013: Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee and National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, reveals that the NSA had in place a monitoring program capable of tapping the communications of thousands of people, including U.S. citizens.
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2015: Instagram, the photo-sharing site, reaches 400 million users, outpacing Twitter, which would go on to reach 316 million users by the middle of the same year.
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2016: Google unveils Google Assistant, a voice-activated personal assistant program, marking the entry of the Internet giant into the "smart" computerized assistant marketplace. Google joins Amazon's Alexa, Siri from Apple, and Cortana from Microsoft.