Top 10 Internet Milestones

Back in 1994, Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo helped us navigate the Internet with their website “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web,” but as traffic increased they wisely renamed the site and established yahoo.com. In a time when most people were still trying to understand the very concept of the World Wide Web, Yahoo! served as the primary destination for new e-mail accounts, thus ending the romanticism of the hand-written letter, as well as other services, through its web portal. As of June 2015, Yahoo! employs over 11 thousand people and has a #4 Alexa ranking.

Here’s a business lesson for all you aspiring Mojoholic entrepreneurs: don’t let your company remind consumers of a cadaver. In 1994, Jeff Bezos encountered such a dilemma and dropped the name “Cadabra” for a more consumer-friendly plan. By creating amazon.com, Bezos ensured that his company would top alphabetized lists, and by recognizing the potential for online shopping, he focused on the idea that everybody likes to read and listen to music. And so, what began as an easy-to-find bookstore transformed into a multi-billion dollar empire. While it was Michael Aldrich that first invented online shopping in 1979, it was Bezos that took it to the next level, along with Pierre Omidyar who created eBay in 1995.

0

#8: Google Goes Public (2004)

Also in:

Top 10 Most Creative Google Doodle Designs

Today, the term “Google it” is recognized by most individuals capable of operating a computer. However, back in 2004, Google was more of a suggestion rather than a daily essential. Created by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the company’s official mission statement has always been “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” and well, it’s safe to say that this Mountain View, California organization quickly reached the summit following its initial public offering in the mid-noughties.

There once was a day when people read physical books in coffee shops, but now they read Hemingway from a tablet while Googling clever pickup lines. Yes, it’s hard to imagine a world without WiFi, a world in which human beings were forced to ignore people in a more creative way. But in 1991, the NCR Corporation changed everything - in conjunction with AT&T - as the first wireless products were established for cashier systems. Call it what you want: WLAN or WiFi, what’s important is that you have the correct password. Always know your home WiFi password, and always know how to find a WiFi password in public. It just might save your life or prevent someone from having a meltdown due to a lack of Internet access.

It seems like we’re still in the early stages of revolution when it comes to the Internet, with products like this still being created as recently as 2007. Initially known as “Project Purple,” Steve Jobs collaborated with Cingular Wireless to create something far more compact than a tablet, and by that we mean he gave us “The Jesus Phone” – at least that’s how the media labeled it. When the iPhone was first unveiled in 2007, you could hear a collective hush from the entire world, along with the unmistakable sound of heads exploding everywhere.

0

#5: YouTube Launches (2005)

Also in:

Top 10 YouTube Milestones

Well, here’s an Internet milestone that led to a nation of Mojoholics. And you know what? None of this would have been possible without Janet Jackson’s famous wardrobe malfunction during the Super Bowl halftime show. When Jawed Karim couldn’t easily find a clip of the fiasco, he imagined a better world in which embarrassing videos were easily accessible. And when fellow PayPal employees conveyed the same idea, the framework for YouTube was set in motion. Just 21 months after launching in 2005, the company was sold to Google for a cool 1.65 billion dollars.

Before we could even think about communicating through a series of LOLs and OMGs, we needed the program responsible for the first exchange of electronic mail. As the ‘80s introduced new local area networks, the impossible dream of global e-mail suddenly became a reality. It would be years until your parents were convinced to actually compose an electronic letter, but fortunately they no longer believed that your digital discussions were just a bunch of nonsensical babbling. Almost everybody has access to e-mail today, which means that we’re ALWAYS available – for better or worse.

Ok, we know what you’re thinking. What the F is ARPANET? Well, you might say it’s the foundation for all digital technology. Back in the ‘60s, there was a select group of tekkie nerds who were secretly geeking out and working on a concept that would change the world as we know it. In essence, ARPANET was all about packet switching, which ultimately led not only to Transmission Control Protocol, or TCP, but also Internet Protocol. In other words, without good ol’ ARPANET – which stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network – your latest game of “Angry Birds” wouldn’t be possible – and neither would your entire Internet history.

0

#2: World Wide Web Created (1991)

Also in:

The History of the World Wildlife Fund

Well, we’ve reached the Holy Grail, and no, Al Gore did not invent the World Wide Web, contrary to popular belief. Here are the facts: by the early ‘90s, a collection of game-changers was developing the infrastructure for a system that would connect us all through the Internet. And by January of 1991, the first web servers were operating. You might know the name CERN from Dan Brown’s book and its subsequent film adaptation “Angels and Demons,” but the real story is that CERN was at the forefront of the World Wide Web’s inception. Back in the day, we asked each other for phone numbers to build relationships, and now we ask for web site addresses.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- Facebook Expansion (2006)
- Craigslist Moves Outside Bay Area (2000)
- Napster Falls (2001)
- Wikipedia Launch (2001)
- Twitter Debuts (2006)

When the World Wide Web was established in 1991, we all needed a common stomping ground to discover new information. The NCSA Mosaic Browser was certainly not the first of its kind, but it eventually became the most popular with its graphic capabilities and easy-to-use interface. Created by Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, Mosaic has long been recognized as the ultimate browser of the Internet Boom era, as web users simply enjoyed the process of using the browser. It’s synonymous with the early days of the Internet, and its creators later went on to found Netscape Navigator, which battled it out against Internet Explorer 3 in the first “browser war.”

Do you agree with our list? What is your favorite Internet milestone? For more mind-blowing Top 10s published daily, be sure to subscribe to WatchMojo.com.