This is not a cheeky call to take the wheel away from engineers. It is a serious diagnosis of the moment we have reached in 2026. Artificial Intelligence has arrived at a turning point. It… Read More »Leave AI to the Humanists
Robin Li and Eric Xu found Baidu in Beijing. It quickly becomes the dominant search engine in China, creating a localized alternative to the global internet giants. Part of the 16 Internet Evolution Facts: The 2000 Edition… Read More »The Rise of Baidu
Apple releases the iBook with “AirPort” wireless networking. It is the first consumer product to make Wi-Fi truly accessible and “cool,” finally cutting the cord for home internet users. Part of the 19 Internet Evolution Facts: The… Read More »The Wi-Fi (802.11b) Boom
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is established to oversee the internet’s IP address space and domain name system, taking over these duties from the US government. Part of the 17 Internet Evolution Facts: The… Read More »ICANN is Formed
IBM’s Deep Blue defeats world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a highly publicized match. The result is broadcast live on the web, drawing millions of viewers and showcasing the power of computational logic. Part of the 18… Read More »The “Deep Blue” Rematch
Nokia releases the first “smartphone” with internet capabilities. While primitive, it allows users to send emails and browse basic web pages on the go, foreshadowing the mobile web revolution. Part of the 17 Internet Evolution… Read More »Nokia 9000 Communicator
Rasmus Lerdorf releases the first version of PHP (Personal Home Page Tools). This server-side scripting language becomes the backbone of the dynamic web, eventually powering sites like Wikipedia and Facebook. Part of the 16 Internet Evolution Facts:… Read More »The Birth of PHP
Mark Zuckerberg expands the network beyond the Ivy League, adding high school networks and UK universities, initiating its transition into a mainstream global platform. Part of the 20 Internet Evolution Facts: The 2005 Edition archive.… Read More »Facebook Expands to High Schools and International Universities
A group of filmmakers founds a high-quality video-sharing platform that supports creative artistic content. It introduces clean user interfaces and becomes an early standard for online video distribution. Part of the 18 Internet Evolution Facts:… Read More »The Launch of Vimeo
Joshua Schachter launches a social bookmarking web service. It popularizes the concept of “tagging” and introduces metadata classification to general web browsing. Part of the 16 Internet Evolution Facts: The 2003 Edition archive. HistoricallyVerified