Technology of the 1990s

  • 1990- Adobe Photoshop

    Adobe Photoshop, the industry standard in picture editing, debuted in 1990.
  • 1991- World Wide Web

    The World Wide Web was actually invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, but it was only used by scientific organizations in the beginning. The World Wide Web was released to the public in August of 1991, and hence the Information Age was born.
  • 1992- 1st Cellphone with Text Messaging

    The Nokia 1911 was first release. It was the first cellphone to feature text messaging, which was just invented earlier that year on a PC. This was also the end of large and bulky cellphones.
  • 1994- Amazon

    Amazon was first created by Jeff Brazos in 1994. Ebay also launched later in 1995, and thus e-commerce sites became popular.
  • 1994- Sony PlayStation

    The first Sony PlayStation was released in Japan at the end of 1994. It was later released in the U.S. in 1995. It was Sony's most popular device since the release of the Walkman. The game-changing PlayStation sported a sleek design and CD format, meaning games were bigger, 3D-capable and with superior sound to what came before it.
  • 1996- The Rise of DVDs and DVD Players

    There were 3 tech companies involved in the creation of DVDs and players, so it's hard to pinpoint an inventor. An agreement was made between tech industry leaders to develop one format of DVD so that companies could produce DVDs without the separate players being necessary to view them. In late 1996, the first DVD player was released in Japan, then DVD players were released in the U.S. and Europe in 1997.
  • 1996- Java

    Java was invented by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems in 1995. The Java platform was released in 1996, and thus one of the most popular standard programming languages became widely available.
  • 1996- Nintendo 64

    Nintendo released it's 3rd gaming console, the 64 in September 1996. It featured a more complex controller, and it's partnership with SGI (Silcon Graphics Inc) lead to better quality of games released on the system.
  • 1998- Google

    The internet's greatest search engine launched in 1998. There used to be a variety of search engines fighting for consumer attention in the late 90s. Google quickly dominated the world, and now when somebody searches for something on the internet they "Google it." Co-founders were Larry Page and Sergey Brinn.
  • 1999- TiVO

    TiVo, the first digital video recorder (DVR) device was released in 1999. DVR allowed viewers to record their favorite shows for later viewing. Invented by Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay.