A short history of the internet We've come a long way, baby.

Here's a timeline of some of the significant milestones in the internet's history. 1969 - The first node is connected to the internet's military ancestor, A !A"#T. With no H$ and the ability to bo%nce messages between s%rviving nodes %ntil they reach their destination, A !A"#T was intended to be America's bomb-&roof comm%nications networ' at the height of the (old War. 19)1 - *ichael Hart begins !ro+ect ,%tenberg to ma'e co&yright-free wor's electronically available. The first is the -. declaration of inde&endence. 19)/ - 0olt 0erane' and "ewman com&%ter engineer ay Tomlinson invents email by ada&ting an internal messaging &rogram and e1tending it to %se the A !A"#T to send messages between sites. Within a year, three 2%arters of A !A"#T traffic is email. 19)3 - -niversity (ollege of 4ondon is one of the first international connections to A !A"#T. 19)6 - The $%een sends an email from the oyal .ignals and adar #stablishment in *alvern. 19)5 - ,ary Th%er' sends what is widely considered to be the first s&am message, &romoting 6#(. 195/ - .cott 7ahlman 'ic'-starts smiley-c%lt%re by s%ggesting %sing the 8-9 and 8-: smileys to convey emotions in emails. His message has been &reserved at htt&8;;research.microsoft.com;<mb+;.miley;.miley.html. 195= - >oint Academic "etwor' :>A"#T9 b%ilt to connect -? %niversities to each other over the internet. 1956 - @nternet newsgro%&s are born. ic' Adams at the (enter for .eismic .t%dies releases software enabling news transmission, &osting and reading %sing internet-standard T(!;@! connections. His software b%ilds on wor' beg%n in 19)9 at 6%'e -niversity to e1change information between -ni1 machines. 1955 - The first internet worm is %nleashed by obert *orris. @t infects abo%t 6AAA com&%ters. Altho%gh it ca%ses no &hysical damage, it clogs %& the internet and loses h%ndreds of tho%sands of dollars in com&%ter time.

!hoto of Tim 0erners-4ee s&ea'ing at !hoto B.ean *c*an%s

.A (onference /A11.

1959 - Tim 0erners-4ee and the team at (# " invent the World Wide Web to ma'e information easier to &%blish and access on the internet. 1993 - *arc Andreesen of the "ational (enter for .%&er(om&%ter A&&lications in the -. la%nches web-browser *osaic. @t introd%ces &ro&rietary HT*4 tags and more so&histicated image ca&abilities. The browser is a massive s%ccess and b%sinesses start to notice the web's &otential. Andreesen goes on to develo& the "etsca&e web browser. 199= - @nternet *agaCine la%nches. @t re&orts on 4ondon's first cybercafe and reviews 1AA websites. @t's billed as the 'most e1tensive' list of websites ever to a&&ear in a magaCine. A /5.5?b&s modem costs D399 :&l%s EAT9. 199= - >erry and 6avid's ,%ide to the World Wide Web is renamed FahooG and receives 1AA,AAA visitors. @n 199H, it begins dis&laying adverts. 199H - 6igital #2%i&ment (or&oration's esearch lab la%nches search engine Alta Eista, which it claims can store and inde1 the HT*4 from every internet &age. @t also introd%ces the first m%ltiling%al search. 199H - >eff 0eCos la%nches AmaCon.com, an online boo'seller that &ioneers ecommerce. 199H - e0ay is la%nched to enable internet %sers to trade with each other. 1996 - The browser wars begin. *icrosoft sees the internet as a threat and integrates @nternet #1&lorer with Windows. "etsca&e and *icrosoft go head-to-head, intensively develo&ing and releasing %&grades to their browsers. 1996 - *acromedia 7lash 1.A la%nches to add interactive animation to web&ages. #arly ado&ters incl%de 6isney and *.". 1995 - ,oogle arrives. @t &ioneers a ran'ing system that %ses lin's to assess a website's &o&%larity. ,oogle's sim&le design is soothing while e1isting search engines cram their &ages with animated adverts. 1999 - .hawn 7anning la%nches "a&ster. The &eer-to-&eer software enables internet %sers to swa& *!3 m%sic files stored on their com&%ters and to find each other thro%gh a central directory. ecord labels are f%rio%s. 0y >%ly /AA1, they had effectively sto&&ed "a&ster o&erating. :.ee my history of file sharing9. /AAA - The dotcom b%st. After several years of vent%re ca&italists throwing money at &ro&osals with 'internet' on the cover, it all starts %nravelling as many of these b%sinesses fail to find a mar'et and others realise they don't have a b%siness &lan.

/AA1 - -. reg%lators a&&rove the merger of AI4 and Time Warner. .hareholders of relative %&start AI4 own HHJ of the new com&any. AI4 started in 195H and grew its modest internet connection b%siness into one of the world's biggest media com&anies. /AA3 - "early half of %s are connected8 -? telecomms reg%lator Iftel re&orts that =)J of -? homes have internet access and H5J have a !(. If those online, 1HJ %se broadband and 9/J are satisfied with their service. /AA= - As broadband becomes more &o&%lar, media com&anies start selling m%sic and video online. "a&ster rela%nches as a &aid m%sic download store. @t's %& against iT%nes, A&&le's download store for its trendy i!od &ortable m%sic &layers. /AA= - *ar' K%c'erberg la%nches 7aceboo' at Harvard -niversity. Within three years, the social networ'ing site has 3A million members. 0y /AA9, 7aceboo' boasts of over /AA million active %sers :those who have logged in in the last 3A days9. /AA= - !hoto sharing website 7lic'r is born, coinciding with the rise in digital &hotogra&hy. :?oda' discontin%es reloadable film cameras in Western #%ro&e and "orth America in this year.9 /AAH - The internet starts to threaten television and tele&hone com&anies. Fo%t%be la%nches to enable &eo&le to easily &%blish videos online. Within a year, ,oogle ac2%ires Fo%t%be for L1.6H billion des&ite owning its own video site. At the time, Fo%t%be %sers were %&loading 6H,AAA new films and watching 1AA million cli&s each day. *eanwhile, &hone com&anies are threatened by free internet-based &hone calls. .'y&e enables two million calls at any moment, and has a %ser base of H3 million. e0ay ac2%ires .'y&e for L/.6 billion :D1.= billion9, altho%gh it later fails to incor&orate .'y&e into its core b%siness s%ccessf%lly. /AAH - Ild media has been slow to catch %& with new media. %&ert *%rdoch's "ews (or& res&onds by b%ying @ntermi1 *edia, owner of *ys&ace.com, for LH5A million :D33/.5H million9 and @TE ac2%ires 7riends e%nited for D1/A million :abo%t D5 &er %ser9. /AA6 - Twitter is created. @n star' contrast to the &roliferation of lengthy blog &osts online, Twitter messages are limited to 1=A characters. /AA5 - >ac' .heng becomes the first &erson to earn an e0ay feedbac' score of one million. 7rom start%& ca&ital of LHAA, .heng has b%ilt a L=A million b%siness selling gadgets. e0ay creates the shooting silver star to designate %sers with a feedbac' score of over a million. /AA5 - ,oogle's tenth birthday. The com&any that began with a search engine now also dominates online advertising and has a leading &resence in online ma&&ing, webmail and online doc%ment collaboration. ,oogle's search engine inde1es 1 trillion %ni2%e - 4s and there are several billion new web&ages &%blished every day. ,oogle encroaches on *icrosoft's territory with the la%nch of the ,oogle (hrome browser.

/AA5 - The mobile web reaches critical mass for advertising, according to "ielsen *obile. @n the -., there are 9H million mobile internet s%bscribers and =A million active %sers. -. mobile &enetration is 1H.6J, com&ared to 1/.9J in the -?. *obile internet generated L1.) billion in reven%e in the first 2%arter of /AA5. /AA9 - Actor Ashton ?%tcher becomes the first &erson on Twitter to have a million followers s%bscribing to his 'tweets'. /AA9 - The 00( anno%nces its i!layer will go high definition. @t was first la%nched (hristmas /AA) and is %sed to stream &rogrammes over the internet for %& to a wee' after their television broadcast. Two thirds of 0ritons have broadband access at home , and there were 1.H million new broadband s%bscribers in /AA5. /A1A - @n 7ebr%ary, 7aceboo' anno%nces it has =AA million active members. That's larger than the &o&%lation of the -. and -? combined.