Now is the time to start a SaaS company and get your piece of the financial pie. The question is, what SaaS product should you offer? What business model should you choose?

Find a suitable pick below and discover the essential elements of SaaS products.

What are SaaS products?

SaaS (Software as a Service) products are cloud-based solutions that don’t require downloading and installing software. They’re available online for a monthly or annual fee, running on SaaS providers’ servers and enabling users to access the features via web browsers and use them on the go. SaaS vendors handle the maintenance, security, and updates, taking a load off their clients’ IT staff.

However, you don’t have to build a SaaS product from scratch. You can get a white-label SaaS to rebrand and market as your own. Think of it as leasing the software and selling it under your brand.

Crucial elements of SaaS products

All SaaS products have the following essential elements:

• Accessibility – Being cloud-based solutions, SaaS products give users on-demand access, eliminating the need for downloads and installations. That means no setup and maintenance costs on the user’s end, making SaaS solutions attractive to consumers.
• Scalability – Customers can scale SaaS products to accommodate their changing needs. They can expand the capacity as their businesses grow or reduce it during low demand to avoid wasting resources.
• Integration – SaaS products integrate with multiple third-party apps to help users work seamlessly with their favorite cloud tools or on-premise systems.
• Automatic updates – SaaS providers regularly update their products, ensuring they remain accessible, functional, and secure. Users don’t need to worry about maintaining the infrastructure or implementing the latest security measures.

These benefits make SaaS products fantastic for consumers, enabling providers to attract more customers consistently and generate high revenue.

Different types of SaaS products

Many SaaS product types exist, the most prevalent including the following:

• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software – a system for managing customer data (e.g., contacts, interactions, and purchases), nurturing and converting leads, and building relationships. The most notable examples are HubSpot, Zendesk, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM;
• Project management software – a platform for planning, scheduling, executing, and monitoring tasks and projects. Confluence, Asana, Trello, ClickUp, and Wrike are some examples;
• HR (Human Resources) management software – a system for streamlining HR processes like recruitment, onboarding, training, employee performance, and payroll. BambooHR, Paycor, Rippling, and Gusto are among the top solutions;
• Accounting software – a bookkeeping system for recording and reporting financial transactions like invoices, assets, inventory, revenues, and expenses. The top-rated solutions include QuickBooks, NetSuite, FreshBooks, and Zoho Books;
• Team communication software – a platform for real-time online collaboration, enabling users to share files, hold virtual meetings, and boost efficiency and productivity. Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom are among the most prominent players;
• Marketing automation software – a system for automating repetitive tasks (e.g., social media and email marketing) and creating workflows. The most notable trendsetters include HubSpot Marketing Hub, Mailchimp, GoHighLevel, and Salesforce Marketing Cloud;
• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software – a system for streamlining back-office functions (e.g., HR, accounting, process compliance, supply-chain operations, and procurement). Microsoft Dynamics 365, SAP, and Oracle ERP Cloud are among the most famous providers.

These and other SaaS products suit businesses across almost all industries, including finance, IT, retail, manufacturing, hospitality, real estate, etc.

Different SaaS business models

SaaS business models differ in the pricing structure. Here are the most widespread types among SaaS companies.

Subscription-based

Subscription-based SaaS products are available for a recurring fee, typically monthly or annual. They offer a free trial or demo to let users explore all the features before committing. The pricing can be user-based, tiered, or usage-based.

Netflix is one example of a subscription-based service, as users must pay to stream the video content once their free trial expires.

User-based

User-based SaaS products include per-user or per-seat pricing. Businesses pay a flat per-user rate, choosing between a monthly and annual plan. The more individuals that use the product, the more revenue the provider generates.

The most prominent examples are Salesforce, HootSuite, and Dropbox, while Slack charges for active monthly users.

Freemium

Freemium SaaS products offer free and premium plans. Free versions have limited functionalities, while their paid counterparts unlock all features. Some providers have only one paid option, while others include more as part of a tiered pricing strategy. 

Many SaaS vendors offer freemium products. Some examples are Asana, Trello, Zoom, FreshBooks, and Mailchimp.

Tiered pricing

Tiered pricing is a feature-based structure that lets businesses choose a package suitable for their needs and budget. Each upper level includes the previous tier’s features and adds extras for a higher fee. The pricing often includes per-user monthly rates.

Most SaaS companies use tiered pricing, including HubSpot, Slack, and Zendesk.

White label

White-label SaaS products are unbranded solutions that companies sell to other businesses. Users can rebrand them to include their logo, colors, and other design elements and resell them for profit. However, they must still pay a licensing fee, typically a monthly or annual subscription.

The most notable companies offering white-label SaaS products include GoHighLevel, Sendible, Unlayer, and Ecwid. 

Vertical SaaS

A vertical SaaS business model involves SaaS products for specific industries like retail, healthcare, education, construction, manufacturing, insurance, or finance. Contrary to horizontal SaaS solutions, they don’t suit every industry or niche market. As for the pricing, they can include any structure their providers prefer.

Some vertical SaaS providers include Riskalyze (finance), Kinnser Software (healthcare), and ServiceTitan (commercial and home service).

Pay-as-you-go

Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) or usage-based SaaS products enable customers to only pay for what they use without committing to fixed monthly or annual payments. They can use all the features, but their provider will only charge them according to usage.

Some SaaS companies using this adaptive pricing model with metered billing include Amazon Web Services (AWS), DigitalOcean, and WordStream. Mailchimp also has a PAYG plan besides its freemium structure.

Conclusion

SaaS products are excellent for startups, requiring minimal upfront investments, especially when using a white-label SaaS. They open the door to recurring revenue, high scalability, and soaring customer retention rates.

The post What Are SaaS Products? appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.

Top 9 Pinterest Statistics for 2024 

Pinterest is an extremely attractive platform for showcasing products, services, and ideas. Today, we’ll share some of the latest Pinterest statistics and trends that reveal just how much potential there is for marketing on Pinterest.

1. Pinterest has 482 million active monthly users

In the fourth quarter of 2023, Pinterest peaked at 498 million active monthly users. That’s 20 million users more than the previous record of 478 million users during the first quarter of 2021. 

In other words, this is the biggest number of active users since Pinterest was launched.  

Pinterest is here to stay, and it’s not just a temporary trend that will vanish quickly because data shows a steady increase in users each year. Read about that below. 

_{Source: Statista.com}

2. The Pinterest search engine has over 5 billion monthly searches 

Pinterest’s Senior Vice President of Products, Naveen Gavini, published a blog post on Medium via Pinterest Engineering. He talked about some exciting details about how Pinterest works and shared internal numbers only the company knows. 

In this post, he shared that Pinterest had over 5 billion monthly searches in 2021. The most active subgroup is Gen Z users, but the platform had overall growth in searches across all demographics. Given that the number of users has grown since then, we can only expect higher numbers regarding monthly searches. 

_{Source: Medium/Pinterest Engineering}

3. Pinterest has had a 65% user growth since 2016 

Pinterest is growing rapidly in terms of active monthly users. When it first became popular, Pinterest grew quickly, but the numbers then diminished quickly as well. However, Pinterest found its audience over time, and users have started piling up. 

Pinterest had 128 million active users in 2016 and has 498 million active users as of as of 2023. In other words, the number of users has almost quadrupled! That’s truly a fantastic statistic and indicates that the platform is doing something right since new users keep coming in every year. 

_{Source: Statista}

4. 4 out of 10 Pinterest users search for products and brands

One of the main reasons why people use Pinterest is to find new information about brands or products. Around 4 out of 10 users use the platform to look for products and brands, meaning bloggers and marketers can use it to showcase their products and ideas directly.

That’s especially true when you take into account some of the other reasons why people use this platform. Pinterest users are trying to find entertaining and funny content and share videos and photos. Simply put, not only can brands showcase their products, but they can expect great shareability. 

_{Source: Global Web Index}

5. Most of Pinterest searches are unbranded (97%)

Most of the searches on Pinterest are unbranded, but then how could 4 out of 10 users be looking for products or brands? That’s because people on Pinterest don’t often look for specific brands or their products. 

Pinterest users want to discover new things randomly, get interesting suggestions, and find new ideas. That leaves much room for marketers to explore advertising tactics and target the right people for the best results. 

_{Source: Hootsuite 2022 Digital Trend Report}

6. 40% of weekly Pinterest users say they love shopping 

Pinterest shared its Feed Optimization Playbook with valuable data that marketers can use to create strategies and advertise on Pinterest. Among many other things, the playbook shows that 40% of weekly Pinterest users say they love shopping. 

At the same time, 75% of Pinterest users say they’re constantly shopping. All of this indicates that these users are shoppers and aren’t just spending time on Pinterest, they’re also spending money. The more consumers that are on the platform, the higher the chances are of making sales and driving traffic. 

_{Source: Feed Optimization Playbook}

7. Pinterest offers 33% more referral traffic to websites, compared to Facebook.

Pinterest drives 33% more referral traffic to websites than Facebook. Even though this might not look impressive, you should know that Facebook has 3 billion users, while Pinterest doesn’t even have a sixth of that. 

The difference in this traffic lies in the purpose and algorithms of Pinterest versus other platforms, like Facebook. Pinterest’s algorithm encourages click-throughs to the links in Pinterest pins. Alternatively, Facebook’s algorithm wants to keep more traffic on the Facebook platform making click-throughs less likely. 

Pinterest drives 71% more traffic than Snapchat and 200% more than Twitter(x). In other words, if you’re looking for a social media platform to drive visitors to your blog and ultimately sell products, Pinterest is an excellent choice because it effectively convinces people to click-through to websites. 

_{Source: Tailwind Instagram}

8. 80% of weekly users has discovered new products or brands.

In a previous statistic, we noted that roughly 40% of Pinterest users are looking for new brands and products, and they are finding them! In fact, Pinterest is a great place for users to find new products or brands.

Whether they do this intentionally through branded searches or by accident, 80% of weekly users discover new brands and products. That means the platform isn’t monopolized, and no two to three brands cover all the space while the rest fight for scraps. 

_{Source: Pinterest}

9. Pinterest users spend double the amount of money per month

Given that Pinterest users are generally shoppers, it doesn’t come as a surprise that they spend 2x more on buying products or services per month compared to other social media users. 

Pinterest users have a 35% chance of waiting seven days or longer before making a purchase decision. In other words, they like taking their time to see what’s offered and buy products they know are worth their money. 

_{Source: Pinterest}

Conclusion

Pinterest offers amazing opportunities for websites and blogs looking to advertise and drive traffic with valuable visitors who can convert and become loyal customers. All the numbers indicate that Pinterest is here to stay and help businesses grow, whether big or small.

The post Ultimate Pinterest Statistics You Should Know in 2024 appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.

Update: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7

Social Media Surge and Mobile Internet

The 2010s saw the explosive growth of social media and the widespread adoption of mobile internet. These two elements reshaped how we connect, share, and do business. The introduction of Instagram and Snapchat changed how we communicate globally. The founding of Quora increased the ease with which we can share information and learn. Internet-based freelance services like Fiverr made finding help online that much easier.

4G mobile internet was introduced making the internet more accessible than ever. This decade was not without its own difficulties, though. The continued growth of the internet and the bulk of new data requiring storage brought to light concerns of ethical data privacy. Meanwhile, blockchain technology and Netflix’s streaming service disrupted traditional sectors making this decade one of continued innovation.

2010

Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launched Instagram. Instagram quickly grew in popularity and became one of the largest social networks.

Source: PopularMechanics.com

The Quora Inc. Company was created in June. A year later, the company launched its quick questions and answer website that gained a large following.

Source: Wikipedia

Viber was launched. It was first used exclusively for iPhone smartphones, as a response to Skype.

Source: Wikipedia

Shai Wininger and Micha Kaufman co-founded Fiverr.

Source: Wikipedia

Research showed that China was dominating the internet with over 450 million internet users.

Source: The Two-Way

2011

The Royal Wedding of Kate and Will was streamed online. This is the largest ever internet event recorded up until that moment, with the most live viewers watching the same stream simultaneously. 

UCLA opened up its Internet History Center, the place of the first ARPAnet node.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

One of the most popular photo & video sharing platforms called Snapchat was launched.

Source: Wikipedia

A live-streaming platform called Twitch was launched by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear. Twitch later became the most popular site of its kind, with millions of viewers.

Source: Wikipedia

The first-ever Darknet Market was launched, called the “Silk Road”.

Source: Wikipedia

2012

The Internet Hall of Fame was founded by the Internet Society. The whole event took place in Geneva, Switzerland and during the founding, the first 33 members were added to the hall of fame.

Source: Wikipedia

The first globally-popular dating app, “Tinder”, was launched. Tinder would become one of the most popular apps in the world and inspire hundreds of other dating sites and apps to follow its steps.

Source: Wikipedia

2013

A social media service for video sharing, Vine, was launched by Colin Kroll, Rus Yusupov, and Dom Hofmann. It was acquired by Twitter shortly before being launched. The service grew in popularity very quickly, but was eventually shut down.

Source: Wikipedia

Pavel and Nikolai Durov launched Telegram. This messenger app has users across Europe, Russia, and the United States with over 400 million users.

Source: Wikipedia

Edward Snowden copied and leaked sensitive files from the American NSA as an employee of the CIA. He revealed various surveillance scandals run by the NSA for tracking individuals, companies, and governments.

Source: Wikipedia

2014

Facebook acquired the WhatsApp messaging service for around $19 billion. It was yet another event that solidified the Facebook Company as the leading internet giant.

45% of people aged 18 to 29 who were in a relationship said that the internet affected their relationships in a major way.

Source: Pew Research Center

2015

Apple Released the “Apple Watch”, the first commercially available smartwatch. Even though it had a high price and short battery life, almost a million units were ordered the first day.

The Federal Communications Commission said that all Internet Service Providers needed to follow net neutrality as a principle to create a truly free and equal internet platform for everyone.

Source: Computer History Museum

2016

Yahoo announced that the company suffered a major data breach that affected over 3 billion user accounts. The company revealed that the breach happened in 2014 and this is considered the largest online data breach ever recorded.

Source: CSO

The Pokemon Go app was launched. Every kid growing up in the 90s finally got the opportunity to catch ‘em all. The app used augmented reality that let people use their smartphones to see Pokemons outside and find them in their neighborhood. For around two months, the whole world went crazy about Pokemon Go.

Source: PopularMechanics

2017

The TikTok social network was launched globally. One of the latest successful social networking platforms that emphasized short music & video clips. TikTok was the global version of the app called “Douyin” that was launched in China in 2016.

Source: Wikipedia

2018

The Cambridge Analytica scandal broke out in March. The company harvested the personal data of over 50 million Facebook users and used it to help promote the campaign of Donald Trump during his election run. This sparked a lot of debate about online privacy and how Facebook was treating user data.

Source: The Guardian

2019

5G was introduced across the United States. The first two cities that got 5G were Chicago and Minneapolis, followed by Denver, Providence, and many others. This technology offered a substantial increase in internet speed that is expected to help the development and implementation of many other new technologies.

Source: Verizon

To Be Continued

Recommended reading:

• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1828–1844 Timeline (Part 1)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1845-1940 Timeline (Part 2)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1941-1970 Timeline (Part 3)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1971–1979 Timeline (Part 4)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1980–1989 Timeline (Part 5)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1990–1999 Timeline (Part 6)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 2000-2010 Timeline (Part 7)

The post Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 2010–2019 Timeline (Part 8) appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.

Update: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6

The Beginning of the Dot Com Era

The early 2000’s were a period of swift change and enormous growth in internet history. This time period witnessed the dramatic rise and fall of the Dot-com bubble, the introduction of groundbreaking social media and search platforms like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, and the roll-out of revolutionary technologies like the iPhone and 4G networks. Read on for a look at the stories of influential figures like Satoshi Nakamoto, who introduced Bitcoin, and companies like Google and Apple that continued to push the boundaries of innovation.

2000

One of the worst crises for tech and internet companies happened in 2000. The “Dot-com bubble burst” happened on the stock market, because too many people started investing in technology and internet companies due to the growth of the internet. The height of the bubble was when the NASDAQ stock index reached 5132. This caused the crash of many startups. From 2000 to 2002 the bubble caused a total loss of $5 trillion for various tech companies.

Source: Wikipedia

The first large-scale DDos attack was launched in 2000 by Mike “MafiaBoy” Calce. The attack combined a total loss of over $1 billion and targeted companies like Yahoo, Amazon, eBay, Dell, and CNN. This event showed just how important internet security is and that even a 14-year-old boy can cause serious issues when he knows what he’s doing.

Source: Cnet

A social networking website for young adults and teenagers, “Habbo”, was launched. This video-game-like online community showed how creative the internet can be and that even younger generations can have a lot of fun on it.

Source: Wikipedia

An online advertising site by the name of “Google Ads” is launched by Google. It was the first online advertising platform that offered a lot of different marketing options.

Source: Wikipedia

A game development company Maxis launches the “Sims” game through Electronic Arts. This was one of the first globally popular simulation games where players created virtual people and their home. Players could customize characters, change their living space, and control their careers and social life.

Source: Wikipedia

The African father of the internet, Professor Nii Quaynor, starts his own training workshop focused on the African Network Operators’ Group. His training efforts have a great impact on the growth and development of the African internet.

Source: NewAfrican

2001

Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales launched Wikipedia in January. The first commercially successful online encyclopedia that wasn’t only open source but free for all to use and update.

Source: Wikipedia

Lawrence Lessig led the project on building Creative Commons. Within the Harvard Law School Professor’s team was Aaron Swartz, who made some major contributions to the Creative Commons open architecture. This architecture reduces various barriers for reusing and sharing various educational and research materials.

Source: Wikipedia

Mike Bergman coined the term “Deep Web”. He came up with the phrase while leading Bright Planet, a data collection company. This term was used when they were looking for web data that wasn’t indexed.

Source: Computer Hope

Google introduced its “Image Search” that instantly gives users access to more than 250 million images on the internet.

Source: Wikipedia

XM Radio made its services commercially available to the public. This was a satellite radio connected to the internet.

Source: Wikipedia

The first Apple earbuds and the iPod are presented by Apple Inc. Nobody knew just how successful these would be at the time.

Source: Apple

2002

eBay acquired PayPal. Up until that moment, PayPal had been doing well on its own, but this acquisition was a decisive moment that propelled PayPal into the large payment platform we know today.

Source: Wikipedia

Reid Hoffman started working on a business network called LinkedIn. By May 5^th, 2003, Hoffman launched his new network that would become the proving grounds for internet professionals and other industry leaders.

Source: The Linked In Man

Nepal was connected to the internet by Mahabir Pun and his associates from Europe and the US. Using homemade antennas and long range wireless links he was able to connect a small village in Nepal to the internet. This was just the beginning and it led to the formation of the Nepal Wireless Network that connected more than 175 locations to the web.

Source: Everys

2003

Apple launches its iTunes Music Store. This was the first music web store that legally sold music coming from some of the largest labels in the world. Even though the store initially had around 200,000 songs available, it developed quickly, as all the labels continued adding the songs of their artists. In just 24 hours, the store sold over 250,000 songs that could be played on iPods.

Source: The Telegraph

Hutchison Telecommunications launched the first publicly available 3G network.

Source: History of GSM

Andy Rubin founded Android in October.

Source: Wikipedia

A company from Luxembourg called Skype Technologies launches its online communication software “Skype”. The company was founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom with this single vision.

WordPress was launched by co-founders Matt Mullenweg and Mike Little.

Source: Wikipedia

MySpace was launched and in just a couple of months it became the largest social network on the internet. In 3 years, the total number of accounts was over 100 million. The co-founders of MySpace are Jon Hart, Chris DeWolfe, and Tom Anderson.

Source: Wikipedia

Apple Inc launched its own mobile internet browser for iOS devices called Safari.

Source: Wikipedia

One of the most popular peer-to-peer platforms, “The Pirate Bay” or TPB, was launched in November.

Source: Wikipedia

2004

Facebook was created in 2004. At first it was called “The Facebook” and it wasn’t meant to be used as a global social network. It was an online directory for college students to help them connect. It was created by a group of Harvard College students Mark Zuckeberg, Chris Hughes, Dusting Moskovitz, Andrew McCollum, and Eduardo Saverin. Overnight Facebook got over 1,000 registrations and soon enough, the network expanded to other large universities in the US.

Source: Wikipedia

Source: PopularMechanics.com

Gmail was first launched. At the time, the most popular email services were Yahoo that gave its users 4MB of free storage and Hotmail that provided 2MB. But when Google announced the release of Gmail, they shocked the world when they promised that their email service would give 1GB of free space to its users.

Even though many thought this was only marketing talk, Google delivered. This made a great impact on how much storage space email providers gave to users. Megabytes simply weren’t enough anymore. It sparked a storage war that Gmail ultimately won as almost nobody uses Yahoo or Hotmail today.

Source: Wikipedia

This was the same year when Digg was created. Initially it was a tech news hub but over time Digg expanded into various areas such as entertainment, economy, and politics. This news site is socially moderated meaning that the users decide what happens on the platform and how it evolves. It’s one of the most popular Web 2.0 products even though it wasn’t acquired by any major tech company. Sadly, Digg couldn’t keep up with the newer online technologies and designs, which drove its users away over time.

Source: Mashable

The video and image hosting service Flickr was launched. This online platform and community was made by Ludicorp and it quickly gained popularity with both professional and amateur photographers who could use it to host and post high resolution photos they’ve made.

Source: seowebmarketing

Blizzard Entertainment created and published its MMORPG called the World of Warcraft. Even though it wasn’t the first MMORPG, for many people it was because it became the most popular game for a certain time and the most popular game ever in the genre.

Source: Wikipedia  

OPENWORLD LTD was founded by Dorcas Muthoni. This software company was crucial in developing and delivering some of the most important cloud and web-based applications throughout the African continent.

Source: Lioness of Africa

2005

YouTube was founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim – three former employees of PayPal. It was a perfect moment for creating this kind of service, as web-based and flash-based video sharing was booming. In a short period of time, YouTube became the main engine for revolutionizing web-based video. Even though it didn’t have the best video quality, it was approachable and easy to use. YouTube also hosted the first-ever online presidential debate in the United States. Google acquired YouTube in 2006 for $1.6 billion.

Source: Cnet

Aaron Swartz, Steve Huffman, and Alexis Ohanian started Reddit – a discussion, content rating, and social news aggregation website.

Source: Wikipedia

Google announced the launch of its Web mapping site called “Google Maps”. At first, it was designed as a desktop program developed by a company called “Where 2 Technologies”. However, it was quickly acquired by Google and transformed into a web mapping service.

Source: Wikipedia

Dial-up internet connections became obsolete, as they were surpassed by high-speed broadband internet connections. The number of broadband internet users in the US surpasses narrow-band users.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

2006

Noah Glass, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, and Jack Dorsey launched Twitter. The site would eventually grow into one of the largest social media platforms.

Source: Business Insider

VKontakte was launched. This social network is designed for Russia and Russian-speaking regions. It grew quickly in popularity and became “the Facebook of Russia”. Its founders are Lev Binzumovich Leviev, Yitzchak Mirilashvili, Pavel Durov, and Nikolai Durov.

Source: Wikipedia

jQuery was presented by John Resig. It would quickly grow into the largest JavaScript library.

Source: Wikipedia 

2007

The iPhone was created by Apple Inc, which marked the turning point in mobile internet development. The first iPhone was introduced to the public with 4GB and 8GB storage options. They were sold respectively for $499 and $599.

Source: Wikipedia

Ermanno Pietrosemoli achieved the official world record for the largest Wi-Fi connection that spread over 382 km.

Source: Cnet

Estonia used the internet for voting in their parliamentary election, becoming the first country in the world to use the internet for voting.

Source: Wikipedia

Netflix introduced its streaming services. Even though Netflix was founded in 1997, its core services were movie rentals. However, in 2007 the company introduced a new type of service called “streaming” that allowed users to watch films, TV shows, and documentaries instantly over their website. Netflix became the largest video streaming platform and today it’s the synonym for streaming.

Source: PopularMechanics.com

An electronic musician and sound designer from Sweden Eric Wahlforss and Alexander Ljung created SoundCloud in Berlin, Germany. The official website was launched a year later.

Source: Pagan Research

Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi created Dropbox. Houston was instrumental in expanding the idea behind Dropbox and making it a global service used by millions of people.

Source: Dropbox

2008

Apple launched its software digital market for iOS devices called the App Store.

Source: Wikipedia

At the same time, Google also launched its software digital market “Android Market” for devices using Android operating systems. This store would later be named “Google Play”.

Source: Wikipedia

The first version of Google Chrome internet browser was released to the public by Google.

Source: Wikipedia

Satoshi Nakamoto created Blockchain. It was designed to be used as the public transaction ledger for all the transactions made via bitcoin cryptocurrency. There are speculations that the name Satoshi Nakamoto was a pseudonym for a group of people.

Source: Wikipedia

2009

The alias Satoshi Nakamoto appeared again to present Bitcoin to the world.

Source: Wikipedia

Evan Sharp, Paul Sciarra, and Ben Silberman finished their work on creating Pinterest and launched the platform. Initially, it was imagined as a website for sharing photos, but it quickly evolved into a social network as well.

Source: Wikipedia

Google acquired the GrandCentral telephone service and launched Google Voice. It’s basically an upgraded and rebranded version of GrandCentral.

Source: Wikipedia

A messenger app called WhatsApp was founded.

Source: Wikipedia

Microsoft launched its own search engine to complete with Google – Bing.

Source: Wikipedia

Garret Camp and Travis Kalanick founded Uber in March.

Source: Wikipedia

TeliaSonera launched the 4G network publicly. This was the first telecom operator ever to offer 4G commercially.

Source: Wikipedia

To Be Continued

Recommended reading:

• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1828–1844 Timeline (Part 1)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1845-1940 Timeline (Part 2)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1941-1970 Timeline (Part 3)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1971–1979 Timeline (Part 4)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1980–1989 Timeline (Part 5)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1990–1999 Timeline (Part 6)

The post Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 2000–2009 Timeline (Part 7) appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.

Update: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

The True Era Of The World Wide Web

The 1990s were packed with advancement in the digital world, characterized by groundbreaking developments in internet technology. During this time period there was also the emergence of soon-to-be digital titans that have shaped the online world as we know it today including eBay, Amazon, PayPal, and Google.

1990

The Association for Progressive Communications or APC, was founded by Karen Banks and her associates. This nonprofit organization was a network of global experts whose goals were to create and maintain a free and transparent internet network. The whole of society was to benefit from this technology and not just big companies.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

In 1990 Dr. Stephen Kent started getting interested in open networks and their security. Until 1999 he would work on securing these networks and perfecting their protection methods for safer use.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

This year is also the start of internet development in Latin America. From 1990 to 1999 Ida Holz led a group of computer scientists and experts on the path to developing various computer networks across Latin America.

Source: Lacnic

The Academic Internet Network of Sri Lanka was deployed. The network LEARN was created and managed by Gihan Dias.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Linux was created by Linus Torvalds. The concept of Open Source Software is brought into the mainstream and from there on, it exists as a part of the free internet idea.

Source: Linfo

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is founded by John Perry Barlow and his associates. The goal of this organization is to provide legal support to technologies and individuals in case of legal abuse related to the new technologies that are being developed.

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation

1990 is the year when the world saw the first ever version of Photoshop. It was a revolutionary photo editing software the likes of which nobody had ever seen before. John and Thomas Knoll are the two brothers behind Photoshop. Thirty years later, Photoshop is still the most popular photo editor.

Source: PopularMechanics.com

World Wide Web going public

1991

The year that marks an important milestone in the history of the internet. The World Wide Web (WWW) went public. On August 6^th, 1991, the world witnessed the launch of the first website. It was created by Tim Berners Lee, who was working at CERN at the time.

In a symbolic manner, the site was all about the WWW project and how it could change the world. Lee didn’t want to patent his work – he wanted to share this technology with the whole world.

Source: The Next Web

At the same time, internet technology was absorbed into EuropaNet, the backbone of European Internet. This network would subsequently use TCP/IP. This project was set in motion by Dai Davies.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

The development of the internet in the Netherlands had begun. Kees Neggers started his work on creating the first Internet Provider in Europe.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Pretty Good Privacy software was created by Philip Zimmermann. This email encryption software suite was given to the public for free. Even though it was originally made for organizations and individuals working in human rights, PGP goes public and becomes the most popular email encryption tool.

Source: Springer Link

The Gore Bill was put in motion in 1991 by Al Gore. Also known as the High-Performance Computing and Communications Act, with the goal of creating and managing the National Research and Education Network as well high performance computing in general. The Gore Bill allocated a total of $600 million for this purpose and it also led to the creation of the Information Superhighway.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

1992

The Internet Society was founded by Robert Khan and Vint Cerf. At the same time, the number of internet hosts grew to over one million.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Tracy LaQuey’s “First Layman Guide to the Internet” was finally published. It quickly became a success and was translated into 8 different languages across the world.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame  

Ermanno Pietrosemoli started his project of providing technical education about the internet in many different countries in Africa and Latin America.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

The internet was introduced to Japan by Dr. Harusha Ishida. He explains all the potential of working online and brings UNIX computing closer to Japanese people.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

George Sadowsky started an educational initiative for training people from over 100 countries around the world on internet governance, management, operation, and technologies. By the end of this initiative more than 1,500 certified internet instructors would start sharing their knowledge about the internet in their countries. This initiative was instrumental for spreading the internet globally.

Source: Eyerys

1993

The Mosaic Browser was released by the NCSA. The Mosaic browser is created by Eric Bina and Marc Andreessen at the NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications). This was the first commercially successful web browser that popularized the World Wide Web and made it accessible to the public.

Source: Wikipedia

Nabil Bukhalid created a team of internet professionals who built the Domain Registry for Lebanon and brought internet to the country. The team from the American University of Beirut was instrumental in developing the internet in this country.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

John Cioffi develops the digital subscriber line technology (DSL). His Discrete Multitone version of DSL instantly became a success and it was adopted as a standard in the US. That’s why Cioffi was named the “Father of DSL.”

Source: ETHW

The first newspaper ever appears online – “The Tech.” These were campus newspapers at MIT and this was the first ever complete newspaper server that saved all the editions that came out.

Source: Wikipedia

1994

Yahoo was started in 1994 by Jerry Yang and David Filo, who were still PhD candidates in electrical engineering. The two started the company in a small trailer and they wanted to create a catalogue of all the interesting sites.

This small idea let them reach far with their company, as Microsoft offered a buyout worth $44.6 billion in 2008. At first, the company was called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web”, but it was quickly changed to Yahoo.

Source: Wikipedia

China started working on its own internet backbone. More specifically, Jianping Wu was the head of the project and the leading developer of CERNET. In just a short amount of time, CERNET became the largest Chinese network. At first, it was an academic network, but it was used for the internet in the future.

Source: Xinhuanet

At the same time, Qihen Hu brought the Chinese delegation to the National Science Foundation in the US to discuss connecting the two countries. As a result of these discussions, the first TCP/IP connection was established in China.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

The first ever “Request For Comments” publication was released by Erik Huizer. It presented the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force), their Working Groups, and standard processes.

 Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Marc Andreessen ordered his company to come up with a way to secure all the sensitive data that was being transmitted online. The answer was security encryption called Secure Socket Layer or SSL. This security encryption is still an internet standard.

Source: Eyerys

The first Web camera was also developed the same year. It was named the “Connectix QuickCam”, with a price tag of around $99. Some of the first models could only capture images in grey, with a 320 x 240 resolution, and they could be used on Mac computers only.

Still, this didn’t stop inventive computer scientists from using this Webcam with CU-SeeMe conferencing software and the internet to begin video chatting online.

Source: PopularMechanics.com

Marc Andreessen also started the Netscape company that same year. The company instantly began working on a web browser of the same name. Many give credit to Netscape for starting the .com revolution with their easy-to-use browser.

Netscape also contributed a lot to the popularity of the internet, as many people didn’t understand what it was all about.

Source: PopularMechanics.com

1995

Together with his team, Karlheinz Brandenburg created a file extension to be used for audio format called MP3.

The internet became commercialized as Amazon went live in 1995, a year after it was founded. Many people believe that Amazon is the most successful story of the early commercial internet because it was one of the few companies of the time that survived the “Dot-com bubble”.

The company was forced to fire most of its employees, and lost around $1.4 billion in just 12 months. Despite all of this, Jeff Bezos (founder) was able to restructure Amazon and turn it into one of the leading e-commerce giants.

Source: Cnet

This is the same year when eBay was founded. However, at first, it was called AuctionWeb. It was created by Pierre Omidyar, whose goal was to create an online marketplace that would offer equal opportunities for everyone. The site was built on trust between users and emphasized honesty and fair trade.

Source: Cnet

LiveScript is launched for the first time together with Netscape Navigator 2.0. This might not seem like an important moment, but LiveScript is the precursor of JavaScript. In December of 1995, Brendan Eich renamed it into JavaScript after working with Sun Microsystems. Interactivity on the web wasn’t possible until JavaScript came along.

Source: Cnet

Apache servers were first released. In a short amount of time, these servers will become a standard on the internet and everyone will use them. To this day, around half the sites online are running on Apache servers. These servers were completely free and open source solutions created by Rob McCool. The Apache servers were indispensable for the growth of the web throughout the 90s and early 2000s.

Source: Britannica

1995 was also the year that gave birth to the first internet radio. Norman Hajjar created Radio HK, which was a 100% internet radio station that “streamed” music from various bands that weren’t yet signed by any record label. This radio station was able to reach over 100,000 people in many different countries around the world. It also had the ASCAP trial license, and was a pioneering internet radio that opened the door for many others to follow.

Source: Cnet

1996

Essential Voice over the Internet Protocols were developed by Dr. Henning Schulzrinne. These protocols enable VoIP.

VocalTec created the “Internet Phone.” It was the first-ever commercially available VoIP software that could be used on personal computers. This was almost a decade before Skype came out. Even though dial-up modems were used at the time, the Internet Phone could deal with packet loss and slow internet. It showed the potential of VoIP technology and how it could be used in the future.

Source: Cnet

In 1995 Jack Smith and Sabeer Bhatia started working on Hotmail, the first web-based email service. It launched a year later and was acquired by Microsoft for $400 million in 1997. This was an important event for internet communication, as it showed that email could be used outside of Internet service providers. Simply put, anyone on the web could use email, no matter where they were.

Source: Cnet

A computer drawing software called SmartSketch was developed in 1995 by a company called FutureSplash. The company was acquired by Macromedia and rebranded the software into FutureSplash Animator. It was later renamed into Macromedia Flash 1.0. The company distributed its plugin for free so that everyone could use their software. Soon enough, over 90% of internet users had Flash Player.

Source: Wikipedia

The ICQ chat platform was created. It was developed by an Israeli company called Mirabilis in 1996. It was one of the first stand-alone clients that allowed instant messaging. Even though it wasn’t the first real-time chat platform it was the first one that offered a centralized service through different user accounts. ICQ was acquired by AOL in 1998.

Source: Wikipedia

The Internet Archive is created by Brewster Kahle after successfully creating the Wide Area Information Servers System. He wanted to archive audio files, videos, images, text, and websites across the internet. That’s why he invented the Internet Archive, which was free to use.

Source: Cnet

1997

The term “weblog” was created by Jorn Barger. He came up with this term while logging data onto his site. He was one of the blogging pioneers and remains a blogger to this day. However, the term “blog” came into existence a bit later, in 1999, when he wanted to shorten the term “weblog”.

Source: Peterme.com and Cnet

SixDegrees.com was launched. It was the first social networking site that allowed people to create accounts using their email, adjust profiles, and connect with people.

Dave Winer developed the scriptingNews format, a precursor of RSS feeds. RSS lets people subscribe to a website in a standardized fashion and receive readable content. Based on XML language, this format helps people get information from different sites in the same channel. Ramanathan V. Guha and Dan Libby from Netscape continued to develop this XML-based technology and created the RSS 0.90 in 1999. RSS feeds made blogs much more accessible and enabled podcasting as a concept.

Source: Tutorialspoint

WiFi was introduced to the world. It was made publicly available to everyone, and that event led to the formation of the 802.11 committee that was renamed to IEEE802.11. The name was inspired by a set of standards that define wireless local area network communication.

Source: PopularMechanics.com

Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph founded Netflix Inc. in Scotts Valley, California. Initially, the company sold and rented DVDs via mail, but it quickly switched to rental only and this remained its primary business model until 2007, when it started a streaming platform.

Source: Wikipedia

1998

Two Ph.D. students, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, founded a company called Google in September. Google was incorporated by the two students as a privately held company.

Source: Wikipedia

The first blogs were published. The social blogging network, Open Diary was launched. Readers had the option to comment on someone’s blog for the first time. At the same time, the network gave bloggers the option to share their content only with their friends. All these publishing tools on Open Diary inspired a number of new blogging platforms.

Source: Wikipedia

The Mail Abuse Prevention System Company was founded by Paul Vixie. The goal of this organization was to combat spam messages and other abusive behavior via email.

Source: Wikipedia

PayPal was launched in Paolo Alto, California. At the time, nobody knew just how big this money transferring platform would get and many people were sceptical about online transfers.

Source: Electronic Payments International

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers got its first CEO and president – Michael Roberts.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

The multi-language internet domain name system was founded by Tan Tin Wee. He was the key to putting it on the international map – throughout the 1990s, he led a group of people that hosted Tamil and Chinese sites in Singapore. He received many rewards for his technological achievements in developing the Tamil internet.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

1999

Winifred Mitchell Baker joined the Mozilla Project. She also founded the Mozilla Foundation and became the chairperson. Her work gave legitimacy to Open Source internet software clients.

Source: Wikipedia

Craigslist was founded by Craig Newmark. Craigslist quickly became one of the most popular websites in the world. It introduced classifieds to the internet and revolutionized them. Due to the impact of Craigslist, classified advertising has become an internet industry.

Source: Wikipedia

The .SE board realized the value of Domain Name System Security Extensions or DNSSEC. This internet protocol protection gives more security to visitors and lets them know if they are visiting a safe site. The application of DNSSEC is mostly due to the efforts of Anne-Marie Eklund Lowinder.

Source: Wikipedia

Pyra Labs creates and launches their “Blogger” platform. Everyone on the internet could now create their own personal blog on this platform, quickly and free of charge. Blogger was a major hit for the blogging community, and it started developing rapidly. That’s why Google acquired the company in 2003.

Source: Wikipedia

One of the first globally popular messaging, voice call, and video call services was launched – Windows Live Messenger or MSN Messenger.

Source: Wikipedia

The first large-scale internet-based music platform was launched – Napster. In just a month, Napster started distributing MP3 data to its users. The application was created by Sean Fanning, and it was an important milestone that showed how the internet could change the whole music industry in the future.

Source: Wikipedia

The BlackBerry “850” was presented in Munich, Germany for the first time. This two-way email pager was named by the Lexicon Branding marketing company. The company soon branded itself as BlackBerry Limited and it was instrumental to the development of smartphones and the whole mobile industry.

Source: Wikipedia

To Be Continued

Recommended reading:

• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1828–1844 Timeline (Part 1)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1845-1940 Timeline (Part 2)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1941-1970 Timeline (Part 3)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1971–1979 Timeline (Part 4)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1980–1989 Timeline (Part 5)

The post Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1990–1999 Timeline (Part 6) appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.

Update: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Encouraging Global Connectivity

The 1980’s saw a surge in the spread of the internet to new regions. These connections would be the beginning of a true world wide web and would play a large role in setting the standards and expanding internet connectivity on a global scale.

1980

In 1980 the world was witnessing the rapid growth of computer networks and new protocols. 

Mike Jensen started his project on developing networks for connecting non-profit organizations. His work would ultimately lead to the creation of a network meant for developing nations. 

Source: APC 

Jaap Akkerhuis was the leader of internet development in the Netherlands. He was also one of the important contributors for developing the internet in Europe. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

Radia Perlman starts working on her Intermediate System to Intermediate System (IS-IS) protocol design. It would be used for IP routing which is still used today. It’s also used for the Spanning Tree algorithm, a technology that lets Ethernet control larger amounts of data. 

Source: Wikipedia 

The CSNet (National Science Foundation Computer Science Network) is organized and created by Professor David Farber. It was essential for creating a global internet presence. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

DR. Van Houweling starts managing and overseeing all the operations on NSFnet. This was the foundation for creating the global internet network. 

Source: Wikipedia 

The Internet Activities Board is formed by Dr. Barry Leiner. Leiner was a DARPA manager who worked at IAB until 1989 and helped create various technical standards for the internet. 

Source: Internet Society 

Lawrence Landweber starts working on creating the first network gateways between the US and Europe. He created multiple gateways from the US and to other European countries. Landweber worked on this project from 1980 to 1989. During this time he also held the “Landweber Conferences” around the world to teach scientists from different countries how to set up their own research, academic, and national networks. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

1981

The Computer Science Network (CSNET) was created by Lawrence Landweber and computer scientists from BBN, RAND Corporation, University of Wisconsin, Purdue University, and University of Delaware. The NSF granted seed money for the project and the goal was to give network accessibility and communication services to university scientists without ARPANET. From 1981 to 1984 the network covered more than 180 government computer science, industrial, and university departments. 

Source: Purdue University 

That same year BITNET was created by Ira Fuchs and Greydon Freeman. The network was founded at the City University of New York and Yale. The acronym BITNET stood for “Because It’s Time Network.” Other universities and colleges that wanted to join the network had to get their own phone line and modems and connect without any charges. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1982

The first public WAN came to fruition in 1982. It came about in the form of the EUUG dial-up service through EUnet started by Teus Hagen. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

At the same time, Asia got its own first internet connection SDN, developed by Kilnam Chon. This was a sign that scientists in Asia needed to start promoting regional internet development. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

1983

In 1983 ARPANET finally switched to the more powerful system of protocols TCP/IP. Up until then, the network had been using Network Control Program protocols, which were already outdated. This switch marked the start of the internet as we know it today. 

Source: Wikipedia 

At the same time, the Domain Name System was invented by Paul Mockapetris, allowing the internet to expand to everyone in the world, not just people in the academic community. With the help of John Klensins, the early work definitions and procedures to be done on DNS by administration were set. 

Soure: Internet Hall of Fame 

1984

In 1984 Top level domains like .com, .edu, and .org were introduced. Their inventor Jon Postel describes top level domains as “administrative entities”. He published a series of papers from the Internet Engineering Task Force. One of the things that these documents mentioned were top level domains. 

Source: Cnet.com

That same year, the Global SchoolNet was formed by Yvonne Marie Andrés. This nonprofit educational organization looked to help various people internationally for free and introduce them to important technologies and projects. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

Ben Segal started pursuing his idea of adding TCP/IP to the internet. Until 1989 he pushed this idea forward in the scientific community and CERN. Without his involvement who knows how the internet would look today. 

Source: CERN 

The first university network is developed in Japan called the JUNET. It was a Unix Network made by Jun Murai. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

This was also the year when Germany received its first email. The email said “Willkommen CSNET” and it was greatly appreciated because of the contribution made by Werner Zorn to connect Germany to the internet. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

1985

The first ever domain name was recorded and registered as Symbolics.com. It was provided to the Symbolics Inc. company. 

Source: gcn.com

Stephen Wolffs Research & Education Network led to the development of a brand new network called the NSFNET. This was the first ever public network for researchers and students in the US. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

1986

The standard email routing system is developed by Craig Partridge. This technology routes emails through domain names, and the technology is still used today.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

The iconic IETF 1 is held in San Diego, California. This was the first ever IETF meeting with 21 participants. The Internet Engineering Task Force is a global community of internet experts who suggest standards and architecture designs for the internet.

Source: Wikipedia

1987

The release of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Internet” written by Ed Krol. Krol understood how valuable the internet can be for everyone, and especially for the academic community. However, he knew that academics weren’t using the internet properly.

This is why he made “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Internet” as a user-friendly guide on how to use the internet if you didn’t have any programming language. The guide later became the RFC-1118 of the Internet Engineering Task Force.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

The internet continues to expand. Florencio Utreras, a Chilean scientist, helps bring the internet to his country. Chile is connected to BITNET.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Srinivasan Ramani started developing the Education and Research Network of India, also known as ERNET. He played a key role in setting up the first international gateway for ERNET, which linked it with Amsterdam.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

In 1987, the connection of the whole of Southern Africa to the internet began. By the end of 1992 all the countries in the region were connected to the internet. One of the people that have contributed the most to this project is Anriette Esterhuysen. Due to her hard work, a huge part of the continent now had internet and email.

Source: Wikipedia

The African Information Society Initiative is formed with the help of Nancy Hafkin. This group is responsible for setting up email connectivity in the first 10 African countries.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

This was also the year when GIFs were born. A group of developers from CompuServe including Steve Willhite found out about the LMZ compression algorithm. Its efficiency and lossless quality helped these developers create the first GIF ever, and GIFs became popular really quickly. Through them, the web was transformed into a more colorful place.

Source: Cnet

1988

The first Internet Exchange point is created by Dr. Glenn Ricart. This exchange point has connected all the TCP/IP networks run by the government with all of the commercial and other internet networks in the US. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

“The User’s Directory of Computer Networks” book is being written by Tracy LaQuey Parker. It’s one of the first really popular books about the internet. This book later became part of NSFNET’s historic record.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

With the hard work and dedication of Dr. Kanchana Kanchanasut Thailand finally gets its own domain name.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Francois Flückiger organized the first-ever meeting of RIPE (Réseaux IP Européens), during which the organization itself was created. RIPE is a nonprofit organization focused on giving technical support and expertise for the internet infrastructure in Europe.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

The first ever European Internet Service Provider is built by Daniel Karrenberg and his associates. While doing this, Karrenberg is also one of the founders of Reseaux IP Europeens as well as the founder of the RIP Network Coordination Centre – the first regional internet registry.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

1989

The World Wide Web is created by Tim Berners Lee. While working for CERN Lee puts the finishing touches to the World Wide Web. His partner on the project was Rober Cailliau, who secured funding. 

Source: CERN

The start of one of the most important projects for the internet beings in 1989. Alan Emtage starts working on a program called “Archie”, the very first search engine. Various techniques, structures, and designs that were used with Archie are still used in modern search engines. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Tadao Takahashi starts creating the foundation for the Brazilian internet. The primary focus is on building an academic network, but after that, it becomes the backbone for establishing an internet connection for the whole country.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

Dr. Stephen Goldstein starts working on global internet development. Goldstein works on funding and evaluation internet development initiatives around the globe. Over 25 countries have been connected to the NSFNET due to his work.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

At the same time, an Australian scientist Geoff Huston worked on expanding the internet in his country from research and academic purposes to the general public. Together with Telstra, a company that provides communication services, he was able to deploy the internet on a large scale through the country, as well as a transit provider in the region.

Source: RogerClarke.com

1989 also marks the year when the first publishing system was created called the Wide Area Information Server or simply WAIS. It was made by Brewster Kahle along with the company WAIS Inc. WAIS was a precursor to search engines as we know them today. It was able to index lots of online data and make those resources searchable.

Source: Internet Hall of Fame

To Be Continued

Recommended reading:

• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1828–1844 Timeline (Part 1)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1845-1940 Timeline (Part 2)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1941-1970 Timeline (Part 3)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1971–1979 Timeline (Part 4)

The post Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1980–1989 Timeline (Part 5) appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.

Update: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

The Dawn of the Digital Odyssey

The 1970’s mark a pivotal period in the the history of the internet. During this decade the foundational circuitry would be laid paving the path for the internet as we know it today. Many of the major and influential players in the technology landscape, like Microsoft and Apple, also go their start in the 1970’s.

1971

In 1971 ARPANET was improved by yet another technology – email messages. A member of the BBN Company Roy Tomlinson implemented a program that allowed users to send email messages across the ARPANET distributed network. 

At the beginning, the whole program was actually a combination of two programs: 

1. CPYNET (a file transfer software)
2. SENDMSG (intra-machine email software) 

Source: Wikipedia

That same year, Michael Hart started the project Gutenberg. The goal was to make various resources and works available electronically for free. The US Declaration of Independence is the first piece of information available. 

Source: Wikipedia  

1972

The email program used on ARPANET was modified by Ray Tomlinson. A new sign (@) was introduced to create a difference between local and global emails. At the same time, Larry Roberts starts writing the first ever program for managing emails. 

The program is called RD and it will ultimately let users respond, forward, file, and read emails. While all of this is happening the IMP network is slowly expanding and currently has 23 hosts and 15 nodes. ARPANET is demonstrated to the public by Robert Kahn for the first time. 

20 computers are connected at the International Computer Communication Conference. This is actually the moment when the public learned just how important packet-switching will be for the future of computing. 

Source: Live Science 

The first Internet Address Registry is created by Jon Postel and other scientists. This technology will later turn into IANA or Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. All of this enables IP addresses and many other essential internet functions. 

In France, Louis Pouzin is leading a team of his own towards building their own ARPANET called CYCLADES. However, even though CYCLADES was built on the same principles as ARPANET, it was only meant for internetworking. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1973

Ethernet was invented in 1973 by Bb Metcalfe at Xerox Parc. Metcalfe was given the task of connecting a room of computers and creating a network. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

At the same time, Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf started developing the most important internet protocol TCP/IP. This protocol will be the major breakthrough that would allow different networks to communicate through the same standards. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

Danny Cohen implemented the “packet voice and packet video” when setting up the visual flight simulator and upgrading its functions on ARPANET. This is called the “Network Voice Protocol” and it was the first time that packet switching was used with applications running in real time. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

ARPANET went international as University College of London created a successful link. The connection was established via NORSAR in Norway. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1974

The SRI International’s NIC (Network Information Center) was joined by Elizabeth Feinler. This event was very important because Feinler formed a group that had a major role to play in the development of the first white and yellow-page internet servers. 

They also created the Host Naming Registry, WHOIS server, and query-based host names for the internet. Her group also created the first essential domain names for the internet including .com, .gov, .org, .edu, .net, and so on. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

Robert Kahn and Vint Cerf continued their work, successfully publishing a new paper that detailed how the TCP (Transmission Control Program) would be designed. Cerf and Khan are the people who coined the term “Internet.” 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

That same year, ARPANET went commercial as Telenet. It was the first ever packet data switch network made by the BBN Company and Lawrence Roberts. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1975

The development of the connected networks that started from ARPANET was always controlled by ARPA,  but in 1975 the operational management of these networks (the internet) transferred to the Defense Communications Agency (DCA).

That same year, the first unified email platform was created. Anyone on the network could use it for drafting, forwarding, and replying to their messages. 

UCL, BBN, and Stanford ran tests through new satellite links stretching from the UK to Hawaii. 

Raphael Finel released Jargon File. 

Source: The History of the Internet 

A small company called “Microsoft” was co-founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1976

The Queen of England, Elizabeth II sent an email from RSRE located in Malvern on March 26^th 1976. It was the first time ever a monarch sent an email. 

Source: MRATHS 

AT&T Bell Labs started developing the Unix to Unix Copy Program (UUCP). A year later, the company started distributing UUCP along with UNIX.

Source: The University of Rhode Island 

Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple in April. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1977

Larry Landweber created THEORYNET at the University of Wisconsin. He used TELENET and an email system on the local level to provide email access and communication to over 100 computers at the university. THEORYNET is the spiritual predecessor of CSNET. 

Source: FTP server 

1978

The first ever spam is recorded. A DEC employee Gary Thuerk sent an email advertisement to almost 400 ARPANET users. The email advertised System-20 mini-computers that were sold by the DEC. It asked email recipients to drop by their stores and check out their product. 

Source: Cnet.com

1979

James Ellis and Tom Truscott create the Usenet system. Usenet is the first online chat service in the world and it exists to this day. It’s the precursor to peer-to-peer systems, internet chat applications, and online message boards. 

Source: Wikipedia 

To Be Continued

Recommended reading:

• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1828–1844 Timeline (Part 1)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1845-1940 Timeline (Part 2)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1941-1970 Timeline (Part 3)

The post Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1971–1979 Timeline (Part 4) appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.

Update: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1, Part 2

Early Beginnings of the Internet 

1945

In 1945 Vannevar Bush wrote an essay called “As We May Think.” This essay predicted a lot of things that will happen in the future with computer information technology. It was deemed visionary and ahead of its time. He introduced the “memex” concept that would be used for storing various data and communication – the computer. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1957

The first space satellite was launched by the USSR in 1957, “Sputnik 1”. It orbited around the earth while transmitting radio communication for 22 days. The Sputnik launch in 1957 and the Atlantic cable in 1858 were two of the most important events that impacted long-distance communication. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1958

The year that Sputnik was launched, the US government formed the ARPA – Advanced wResearch Projects Agency as a response to Soviet success. At the same time, this was the year when AT&T Corporation released the first commercial computer modem. 

Source: Wikipedia , Wikipedia 

1961

The packet-switching concept was pioneered by Leonard Kleinrock in 1961. In his doctoral thesis at MIT, he described packet-switching and how it works. His “Information Flow in Large Communication Nets” was very influential for the development of communication technologies. 

Source: Time Graphics 

1962

When writing a series of memos in 1962, Joseph Carl Robnett Lickner described global networking as a concept. Licklider talked about the “Intergalactic Computer Network” and demonstrated his progressive ideas on networks and computer technology. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

1963

The year 1963 marked the release of the first computer standard – ASCII. The American Standard Code for Information Exchange was set in place by a joint committee. Its goal was to allow communication between computer devices coming from different manufacturers. 

Even though ASCII was a joint effort, the man with the greatest credit for its development was Bob Bemer. Bemer developed this coding system for the purpose of standardizing all the controls, punctuations, and letters that all computers would share. 

Source: CNN

1964

In 1964 Paul Baran started developing the first message blocks. His project was completed in 1967. At the same time, Donald Watts Davies created packet-switching. The two technologies were very similar, and they both made a great impact on data communications in general. 

Source: Rand Corporation 

1965

The first wide-area network (WAN) was created in 1965 by Thomas Marill and Lawrence Roberts. They were sponsored by ARPA for this project for establishing this connection between a computer located in California and in Massachusetts. This system confirmed packet switching as the best model for computer communication. The study was called “Cooperative Network of Time-Sharing Computers.” 

Source: HostingCT 

1966

The ARPANET project started in 1966 by Robert Taylor. His primary goal was to discover a method that would let IPTO contractors communicate and share valuable data resources. His inspiration was the network idea from Licklider, and he picked Larry Roberts as the leader of the project. 

The ARPANET is considered the first network that was similar to the internet as we know it today. Lawrence Roberts used the concepts from the “Cooperative Network of Time-Sharing Computers” study to develop the plan for ARPANET. 

Source: Britannica 

1967

In 1967 a year after the start of the ARPANET project, Lawrence Roberts published the project’s initial design and described it in his paper – “Multiple Computer Networks and Inter-Computer Communication.” Interface Message Processors are used for all the main devices for managing the network. 

IMPs were suggested by Wesley Clark and these devices were the predecessors of modern internet routers. The packet switching technology for transferring data is borrowed from Donald Watts Davis and his paper. 

At the same time, Danny Cohen innovates the real-time visual flight simulator as well as the real-time radar simulator. Together with Ivan Sutherland, Cohen creates line clipping algorithms for computer graphics called the “Cohen-Sutherland.” 

Source: HostingCT 

1968

In 1968 the concepts of collaborative computing and hypertext were introduced for the first time by Douglas Engelbart. In his presentation called “Mother of All Demos” at the Fall Joint Computer Conference, Englebart did a presentation in which he had a live conference with his coworkers who were located 30 miles away. 

This iconic moment is still called “Mother of All Demos.” At the moment, it was something nobody had ever seen before. This proved yet again how innovative Englebart was, even though most people didn’t understand his work. 

Source: Wired

That same year the BBN – Bolt, Beranek, and Newman, Inc. locked in the contract for building the IMSs for the ARPA project. The fact that Edward Kennedy (US Senator) sent a telegram of congratulations to ARPA only shows how important the whole project was. 

Source: Wikipedia 

At the same time, the Host Level Protocols for ARPANET were developed by UCLA. The UCLA Network Working Group was headed by Steve Crocker and overlooked by Professor Leonard Kleinrock throughout the entire project. 

This group created the foundational protocols that are used in the modern internet. Some of the most important members of the project were Jon Postel and Vint Cerf. 

Source: Columbia University 

1969

In 1969 the Interface Message Processor was finished. ARPANET was the first-ever physical node – a network of 4 different computers. The four hosts were located in: 

1. The University of Utah 
2. University of California at Santa Barbara 
3. Stanford 
4. The University of California in Los Angeles 

The first data packets were sent by a team from UCLA on October 29^th. Charley Kline was in charge of the project while Leonard Kleinrock was supervising the whole thing. However, the first attempt was unsuccessful. On the second try, the transfer was successful. 

That same year, the contract for designing the ARPANET network structure was given to Howard Frank. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1970

ARPANET expanded using transatlantic IP connectivity to connect to a European node. The node was located at the University College London and operated by Professor Peter Kirstein. 

Source: Internet Hall of Fame 

That same year, Norman Abramson developed the ALOHANET at the University of Hawaii. It was the first packet radio network in the world. 

Source: Wikipedia 

To Be Continued

Recommended reading:

• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1828–1844 Timeline (Part 1)
• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1845-1940 Timeline (Part 2)

The post Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1941–1970 Timeline (Part 3) appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.

Update: This article is part of a series. Check out the full series: Part 1

1854

In 1854 began the construction of the first transatlantic telegraph cable line. The construction took four years, and it was stored on the “Agamemnon” from Britain and “Niagara” from the US. These boats were financed by the two governments. 

Even though this was a big event that made an important mark in history, the project quickly fell apart due to technical issues. It only lasted for three weeks, but it showed that it was possible to achieve something like that. 

In 1866 the project was finalized, and the cables were completely functional. It remained operational for almost a century. 

Source: Netvalley

1876

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell officially presented a couple of prototype telephones at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. This was the first World’s Fair in the US, and in an instant, Bell became a world-famous inventor. 

Source: National Museum of American History 

1885

The year when the American Telephone and Telegraph Company was founded. AT&T was first called the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, but when Bell joined forces with Thomas Sanders and Gardiner Hubbard, they rebranded the company. 

AT&T is still an active conglomerate and one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. 

Source: ICANNWiki 

1892

In 1892 Nikola Tesla created the first radio design. By 1898 patented a boat that was radio-controlled. He demonstrated what his patent could do at the Madison Square Garden in 1898 at the Electrical Exhibition. 

Source: Tesla Society 

Nikola Tesla was ahead of his time, and he predicted wireless technology. For many, his quote was a mystery until we finally started using wireless technology: 

“When wireless is perfectly applied, the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact, it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance.”

Source: Business Insider 

1936

In 19365 Alan Turing was the first one to describe and set up “Turing Machines”, a mathematical model used for computation that describes an abstract machine. It’s an important event that led to the research on computations and how far they can actually go. 

Source: Wikipedia 

1938

The first plan for a logical computer was laid out in 1936 by Konrad Zuse. It was named the Versuchs Model or V1. The manufacturing of the V1 started that same year, while the first prototype came out in 1938. 

Source: History-computer.com

1939

1939 is the year when the Hewlett-Packard Company was founded. The founders of the company, Bill Hewlett and David Packard, first developed audio oscillators and sold them to Walt Disney. The company switched to computer production in 1966. 

Source: Computer History Museum 

1940

George Stibitz first ran his Complex Number Calculator on January 8, 1940. It was the first “remote job entry.” This technique was a major breakthrough in spreading information through computer networks and telephones. 

Source: History-Computer 

To Be Continued

Recommended reading:

• Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1828–1844 Timeline (Part 1)

The post Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1845–1940 Timeline (Part 2) appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.

However, the World Wide Web has contributed the most to what the internet is today. 

The WWW (World Wide Web) was invented by a British scientist Timothy John Berners-Lee in 1989. At the time, Berners-Lee was working for the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Since that moment, he was known as the founder of the Web. 

However, there is certainly more to it. Berners-Lee played a major role, but there are so many factors and discoveries that need to be considered before that.

That’s why we’ve decided to take you on a journey back throughout the history of the internet and try to answer 3 essential questions: 

A lot of brilliant people have contributed to the development of the internet as we know it today. Many discoveries and important events have transpired to get where we are today. 

Defining the WWW and Internet

The development of any technology and innovation is always a result of many events happening before the actual invention. When talking about the World Wide Web and the internet, there are two important storylines to follow: 

1. The invention of internet protocols 
2. The invention of hypertext 

These two are what made this global network possible, but at the same time, there are many other technologies that have contributed to the development of the internet. That’s why we’ll start off by talking about them. 

1828 

In 1828 a German scientist by the name of Pavel Schilling invented the first electromagnetic telegraph called the Schilling. 

1833 

Two German scientists Wilhelm Weber and Carl Friedrich Gauss created a code that they used for long-distance communication in Gottingen, Germany. Their communication stretched for 1200 m. 

Source: Nationalmaglab

1838

In 1834 Charles Babbage started working on his Analytical Engine prototype after his Difference Engine project fell apart. He made quick progress, and in 1838 he had all the essential design concepts in place. 

Source: Union.edu

1843

Ada Lovelace was the first programmer in the world. Similarly to Babbage, she was interested in Analytical Engine and how it worked. However, on top of that, she knew how to input data into the program and use it to solve Bernoulli numbers, which is considered to be the first computer program in the world. 

Source: Nemo Science Museum 

1844

The first-ever Morse code was sent from Washington to Baltimore by Samuel more. It was a public telegraph stating: “What hath God wrought?” This event was actually the development of the first-ever phone line between these two cities using telegraph technology. 

Source: Postscapes

To Be Continued

The post Who Invented The Internet? Internet History: 1828–1844 Timeline (Part 1) appeared first on FirstSiteGuide.