-
The first workable prototype of the internet was ARPANET, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). It connected four universities: UCLA, Stanford, UCSB, and the University of Utah. ARPANET allowed researchers to share data and resources across geographically dispersed locations. -
Ray Tomlinson created the first email system on ARPANET, revolutionizing communication. -
Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn develop the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP), which become the standard for how computers communicate over the internet. -
Robert Metcalfe invents Ethernet, a protocol for local area networks (LANs) that allows for faster and more efficient connections. -
-
Apple is founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, laying the groundwork for personal computing. -
Animated GIFs won't arrive until 1989 and they won't repeat until 1995 -
First major malicious internet-based worm attack was released, referred to as “The Morris Worm”. -
Tim Berners-Lee proposes the World Wide Web (WWW) to help researchers access documents over the internet, laying the groundwork for the modern web. -
Tim Berners-Lee creates the first website, which was dedicated to explaining the concept of the World Wide Web. -
-
-
-
Google is founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, revolutionizing internet search and data organization. -
-
Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg, initially as a social network for college students. It would soon become the dominant social media platform worldwide. -
leading platform for online video sharing. -
Apple launches the iPhone, marking a turning point in mobile internet access, leading to the rise of smartphones and mobile web applications. -
Instagram launches as a photo-sharing social network, and rapidly grows into one of the most popular social media platforms. -
Snapchat (2011) and TikTok (2016) introduce new forms of short-form content, marking the shift towards mobile-first, ephemeral, and video-based social media. -
Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa are introduced, pushing voice-based AI and smart home technologies forward. -
Artificial intelligence is integrated more deeply into internet services, from chatbots and customer service to content creation and data analytics. AI tools like ChatGPT and DALL-E become part of everyday internet use.