50 significant moments from internet history

Even a list of 50 significant moments is small when discussing several decades of history. Our original list of researched moments contained almost 200 events.

Below are some of the ones that made the final list of around 100, but not the 50 you've just seen. You are, of course, encouraged to leave what you consider to be the most important moments, in our comments section below.

Honourable mentions from "In the Beginning"
1978 - First BBS system online in America
1983 - FidoNet online
1984 - Cisco founded
1985 - .uk domain extension introduced

Honourable mentions from "Wiring the Web"
1981 - Hayes Communications creates the Smartmodem
1993 - CNET founded
1994 - First mainstream banner ad with click-through rates used
1995 - Internet Explorer created

Honourable mentions from "All About Email"
1982 - Dr Jonathan Postel proposes SMTP protocol
1989 - Lotus Notes email software released
1996 - Microsoft releases Internet Mail and News 1.0
1998 - BlackBerry 850 launches

Honourable mentions from "Welcome to the Social"
1991 - AOL begins development of AIM, releasing six years later
1998 - Open Diary launched
2002 - Friendster founded
2003 - MySpace relaunched as social network

Honourable mentions from "Online Media"
1991 - First networked webcam set up inside Cambridge University
1995 - RealAudio version 1.0 released
2007 - BBC iPlayer launched
2007 - iTunes launches DRM-free store with EMI on-board

Honourable mentions from "Web Property"
1994 - World Wide Web Consortium founded by Tim Berners-Lee
1995 - AltaVista search engine launched
1997 - First instance of BBC News website goes live
1997 - Heat.net gaming network starts up
1999 - Goatse.cx shocks unwary surfers
1996 - DoubleClick founded

Honourable mentions from "Web 1.0"
1995 - Boing Boing launches as website
1996 - JenniCam goes live
1998 - Hamster Dance launches
1999 - WebVan launches, just before epically failing
2000 - Dotcom bubble bursts

Honourable mentions from "Web 2.0"
2001 - b2, which became WordPress, is created
2004 - Flickr launches
2006 - Twitter launches
2006 - Facebook abandons college-only approach, allows anyone to join

Honourable mentions from "Law and Order"
1994 - Vladimir Levin $10.7m bank hack
2002 - Gary McKinnon arrested
2003 - RIAA mistakenly sues grandma for sharing gangsta rap
2007 - Jammie Thomas fined $220,000 for sharing 24 songs on the Net
2007 - Apple gets ThinkSecret shut down
2007 - AllOfMP3.com is clobbered

Honourable mentions from "Most Epic Fails"
2006 - Google accidentally deletes own official blog
2006 - Capcom gang bang URL controversy
2007 - iTunes accidentally leaks Stargate Atlantis

Here's to the next decade!

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never let the facts spoil a good story..... Anonymous -- 07/10/08

So, did you zdnet journos cut your teeth at one of murdoch's tabloids? If Rob McCool developed the Http daemon in the mid-70s then he was a child genius. Simply look him up on wikipedia and you'll see he was born in 1973. Plus, if he did write it in the mid-70s why isn't he the so-called "father of the web" - I', surprised you lot haven't changed history and decided gates invented the internet - muppets!

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Say what? Vantrax -- 08/10/08 (in reply to #320113647)

Someone cant make a mistake in typing a blog post? Yes, one bit is a little off but the contribution he made is still valid, even if the date is a little off. While your at it, if your going to get picky, wikipedia isn't considered a reliable fact source (though its getting better all the time) and referencing it will get you laughed at more than not.

Don't forget this isn't a moderated new site, its a big blog of techies talking about things that interest them. If your after a news site there are plenty of them around for you to complain about.

As for the post, it was an interesting read and gave me a few things to look at that I didn't know, and a few fond memories like plastering Digg in 2007

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Huh? Anonymous -- 20/10/08 (in reply to #320113761)

"...referencing it will get you laughed at more than not."

So? This is not some pompous, out of touch, 'know nothing-know it all' academic journal.

The majority of science and tech articles on wikipedia are just as accurate as any other encyclopaedia.

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