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Arpanet was the first real network to run on packet switching technology (new at the time).
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Email was first developed in 1971 by Ray Tomlinson, who also made the decision to use the “@” symbol.
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The first PC modem, developed by Dennis Hayes and Dale Heatherington, was introduced and initially sold to computer hobbyists.
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The first unsolicited commercial email message (later known as spam), sent out to 600 California Arpanet users by Gary Thuerk.
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MUDs were entirely text-based virtual worlds, combining elements of role-playing games, interactive, fiction, and online chat.
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The European Organization for Nuclear Research launched ENQUIRE, a hypertext program that allowed scientists at the particle physics lab to keep track of people, software, and projects using hypertext (hyperlinks).
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Scott Fahlman in 1982 who proposed using :) after a joke, rather than the original -) proposed by MacKenzie.
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DNS servers allowed Internet users to type in an easy-to-remember domain name and then converted it to the IP address automatically.
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The so-called Protocol wars began in 1986. European countries at that time were pursuing the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI), while the United States was using the Internet/Arpanet protocol, which eventually won out.
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By 1987, there were nearly 30,000 hosts on the Internet. The original Arpanet protocol had been limited to 1,000 hosts, but the adoption of the TCP/IP standard made larger numbers of hosts possible.
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Also in 1988, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was first deployed, paving the way for real-time chat and the instant messaging programs we use today.
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1991 brought some major innovations to the world of the Internet. The first web page was created and, much like the first email explained what email was, its purpose was to explain what the World Wide Web was.
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The first webcam, It was deployed at a Cambridge University computer lab.
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Google went live in 1998, revolutionizing the way in which people find information online.
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Wikipedia launched in 2001, one of the websites that paved the way for collective web content generation/social media.
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