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History of the Internet

  • ARPA

    ARPA
    ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) goes online in December, connecting four major U.S. universities. Designed for research, education, and government organizations, it provides a communications network linking the country in the event that a military attack destroys conventional communications systems.AR
  • Email

    Email
    Electronic mail is introduced by Ray Tomlinson, a Cambridge, Mass., computer scientist. He uses the @ to distinguish between the sender's name and network name in the email address.
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563214005810
  • The word "Internet"

    The word "Internet"
    The word “Internet“ is used for the first time.
  • Cyberspace

    Cyberspace
    Domain Name System (DNS) is established, with network addresses identified by extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu.
    Writer William Gibson coins the term “cyberspace.“
  • America Online

    America Online
    Quantum Computer Services, which later changes its name to America Online, debuts. It offers email, electronic bulletin boards, news, and other information.
    https://www.aol.com/
  • NCSA

    Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreeson at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide Web, which at this time accounts for merely 1% of all Internet traffic.
  • JAVA

    JAVA
    1995
    CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy start providing dial-up Internet access.
    Sun Microsystems releases the Internet programming language called Java.
    The Vatican launches its own website, www.vatican.va.
    https://www.youtube.com/user/java
  • Millions use the Internet

    Approximately 45 million people are using the Internet, with roughly 30 million of those in North America (United States and Canada), 9 million in Europe, and 6 million in Asia/Pacific (Australia, Japan, etc.). 43.2 million (44%) U.S. households own a personal computer, and 14 million of them are online.
  • Google

    Google
    Google opens its first office, in California.
    https://www.google.com/calendar/about/
  • E-Commerce

    E-Commerce
    College student Shawn Fanning invents Napster, a computer application that allows users to swap music over the Internet.
    The number of Internet users worldwide reaches 150 million by the beginning of 1999. More than 50% are from the United States.
    “E-commerce“ becomes the new buzzword as Internet shopping rapidly spreads.
    MySpace.com is launched.
  • Worldwide Users Increase

    Worldwide Users Increase
    As of January, 58.5% of the U.S. population (164.14 million people) uses the Internet. Worldwide there are 544.2 million users.
  • Downloading & Spam

    Downloading & Spam
    Users download illegally.
    Apple Computer introduces Apple iTunes Music Store, which allows people to download songs for 99 cents each.
    Spam, unsolicited email, becomes a server-clogging menace. It accounts for about half of all emails.
    https://www.wikihow.com/Block-Junk-Mail
  • Internet Worms

    Internet Worms
    Internet Worm, called MyDoom or Novarg, spreads through Internet servers. About 1 in 12 email messages are infected.
    Online spending reaches a record high-$117 billion in 2004, a 26% increase over 2003.
    https://www.techopedia.com/definition/7786/internet-worm
  • YouTube

    YouTube
  • Websites Increase

    There are more than 92 million websites online.
  • Online sales Increase

    Legal online music downloads triple to 6.7 million downloads per week. Colorado Rockies' computer system crashes when it receives 8.5 million hits within the first 90 minutes of World Series ticket sales. The online game, World of Warcraft, hits a milestone when it surpasses 9 million subscribers worldwide in July.
  • Microsoft/Yahoo

    Microsoft/Yahoo
    In a move to challenge Google's dominance of search and advertising on the Internet, software giant Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion.
    https://www.yahoo.com/
  • Online Piracy

    A major protest online in January shakes up Congressional support for anti-Web piracy measures. The protest, including a 24-hour shutdown of the English-language Wikipedia site, is over two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect IP Act in the Senate.
  • Security Issues

    Security Issues
    Coding error discovered in April in OpenSSL, encryption software that makes transactions between a computer and a remote secure, makes users vulnerable to having their usernames, passwords, and personal information stolen. Computer security experts encourage computer users to change their passwords.
    www.raytheon.com/‎
  • Facebook

    Facebook
    On September 26, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook) spoke during the 70th annual U.N. General Assembly session, to increase awareness and garner support for the initiative. Zuckerberg's goal is to bring the Internet to the masses; universal Internet access, he claims, is a basic human right and is an essential tool in the fight to achieve global justice.
    https://www.facebook.com/careers/