In March, the NASDAQ reaches an all-time high before plummeting. Speculative “dot-com” companies with no clear path to profit lose trillions in market value, forcing the industry to focus on sustainable, data-driven business models. Part… Read More »The Dot-Com Bubble Bursts
Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan (Pyra Labs) launch Blogger. It makes publishing online so easy that anyone can have a voice, triggering the first true “golden age” of the blogosphere. Part of the 19 Internet Evolution… Read More »The Birth of Blogger
Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek found Confinity, which later becomes PayPal. It revolutionizes the web by allowing people to send money via email, providing the trusted payment layer the internet desperately needed. Part of the… Read More »The Launch of PayPal
Jorn Barger coins the term “Weblog” to describe his site Robot Wisdom. The term is later shortened to “blog,” marking the birth of personal digital publishing. Part of the 18 Internet Evolution Facts: The 1997 Edition archive. HistoricallyVerified
Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin begin collaborating on a search engine called BackRub. It utilizes a unique “PageRank” algorithm to rank pages based on their link authority, laying the foundation for Google. Part of… Read More »The Arrival of Google (as BackRub)
Microsoft releases Windows 95 with the “Internet Jumpstart Kit,” which includes Internet Explorer 1.0. By bundling a browser with the world’s most popular OS, Microsoft sets the stage for the first “Browser War.” Part of the… Read More »The Launch of Windows 95 and IE
Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Jared Tarbell launch an e-commerce platform dedicated entirely to handmade and vintage items. It gives independent crafters a global marketplace to rival giant digital retailers. Part of the 20 Internet… Read More »The Creation of Etsy
The open-source browser officially launches, introducing tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, and extensions to the masses. It mounts the first serious threat to Microsoft Internet Explorer’s dominance. Part of the 18 Internet Evolution Facts: The 2004… Read More »The Release of Mozilla Firefox 1.0
Apple releases its own proprietary web browser for macOS to replace Internet Explorer for Mac. It introduces a fast, highly optimized rendering engine to the ecosystem. Part of the 16 Internet Evolution Facts: The 2003… Read More »The Arrival of Safari
The world’s first flash mobs are organized via email lists in New York. They demonstrate the web’s power to coordinate real-world collective action. Part of the 16 Internet Evolution Facts: The 2002 Edition archive. HistoricallyVerified