Internet era history What is the Internet, then? has previously been addressed. in-depth. If you are too eager to keep reading instead of pausing, here is a little reminder. The Internet is a system architecture that enables various computer networks all over the world to communicate and is frequently referred to as “a network of networks.” The whole history of the internet is available here if you’re interested in reading more.
Internet’s beginnings
Although it began with roads, followed by railroads and then airways, the concept of a globally interconnected globe has been around for centuries. People began to see the possibility of sharing data and energy during the time of Nikola Tesla. In the early 1900s, he frequently discussed wireless technologies that could go large distances. Libraries later began looking for ways to create a system for book and media archival, backup, and convenient browsing in the 1930s and 1940s.
However, nothing that laid the groundwork for the Internet happened until the 1960s. It was a “packet switching” idea made public by Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s J.C.R. Licklider. It was based on creating a method for exchanging electronic data, frequently between two or more colleges for scientific purposes, via large, rudimentary computers.
How did the internet come to be?
Numerous research and articles claim that the military was the reason why the internet was first developed. Later, when more individuals gained awareness of the internet’s actual potential for communication and other purposes, it began to be used by scientists and other government authorities. This had a significant effect on the development of computer technology and the demand for computers among individuals. The growth of computers would have been much slower if there was no internet.
The earliest known operational Internet concept
Understanding the underlying ideas that made the internet possible is essential to comprehending the history of the internet.
ARPANET
Neil McElroy, the American Secretary of Defense, signed Department of Defense Directive 5105.15 on February 7, 1958. The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, often known as ARPANET, which is regarded as the Internet’s precursor, was made possible thanks to his signature. The project utilised packet switching on a single network to send electronic data between numerous computers, much like the Internet. On October 29, 1969, the first message was delivered via the ARPANET.
It was transmitted from UCLA to Stanford University and was brief and straightforward, just saying “LOGIN.” Unfortunately, due to a network failure that day, Stanford only received two letters, “LO”. After a failed experiment to create an ARPANET-like network named CYCLADES, another important concept for the Internet emerged. They originated the notion that data transmission should take place on the host computer rather than the network.
TCP/IP
TCP/IP, or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, which is still in use today, was the following notable achievement. Scientists Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn created TCP/IP in the 1970s, and ARPANET adopted it on January 1, 1983. The Internet is frequently commemorated on that day as its birthday. The same year, the still-in-use DNS (Domain Name System) created domains like mil,.org,.edu,.int,.net, and.com. Prior to it, websites had numerical addresses and could be accessed by typing in a domain like 123.456.789.111, for instance. Oh, and did you know that in 1975, MSG, the second email programme, was created? Moreover, did you know that Queen Elizabeth sent her first email in 1976?
When did the Internet start to become popular?
William Gibson initially used the word “cyberspace” in 1984, and the Symbolics Computer Corp. filed symbolics.com as its first registered domain the following year. NSFNET, a network run by the National Science Foundation, connected for the first time with ARPANET in 1986. It was capable of 56 kbit/s, which is the same speed as dial-up modems eventually made widely accessible. The timeline of internet history began at this point. In 1987, when there were close to 30,000 host computers on the ARPANET, CISCO released the first router. In 1988, IRC (Internet Relay Chat), the first real-time chat programme, was released, and World.std.com became the first commercial dial-up Internet service provider in 1989.
On October 29, 1989, a UCLA symposium was held to mark ARPANET’s 20th anniversary; the network was formally shut down the following year. The World Wide Web was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, who worked at CERN close to Geneva, Switzerland. In 1990, he created the first web browser, which was made available to other academic institutions in 1991 and to the general public in 1992. That incident served as the catalyst for the Information Age’s development and the widespread adoption of the Internet. To this day, the foundational tool for everybody using the Internet is the World Wide Web, together with the standards Tim created for HTML, URLs, and HTTP.
When did the Internet start to gain traction?
The early to mid-1990s are sometimes cited as the decade when the Internet really began to spark global interest. Around 1992, the phrases “surfing the Internet” and “surfing the Web” started to catch on, and by 1993, there were about 600 websites overall. In 1994, Microsoft released its first Web browser for Windows 95 PCs and Netscape followed suit. When Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web, the predecessor of Yahoo!, went live in 1994, WebCrawler became the first-ever Web search engine to support full-text searches.
Specifically, 1995
The FNC unanimously decided to officially invent the term “Internet” on October 24, 1995. (Federal Networking Council). In the history of the internet, 1995 is largely considered as the year that it started to be used for commercial purposes. In that year, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) was introduced, enabling data encryption and online financial transactions. In 1995, websites including eBay, Craigslist, and Amazon launched online. The Vatican went online for the first time, Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web was incorporated and registered as Yahoo, and the Geocities website went live. The debut of Java, JavaScript (then called LiveScript), and Microsoft ActiveX was crucial.
The 1990s, late
When Hotmail, the first webmail service, was introduced in 1996, there were only roughly 100,000 websites online. In 1997, 56 kbps modems were made available for purchase, and in 1998, Google and Napster went live. The [email protected] project, one of the most significant endeavours humanity has ever made, was launched the following year by scientists. Every time a screensaver activated, computing power might be provided by any computer worldwide that was connected to the Internet. They effectively created a supercomputer by undertaking complex computations and analysis in this way. Analyzing data to look for evidence of extraterrestrial life was one of their objectives.
Internet usage in the 2000s
As a collaborative project based on volunteer labour to build a fundamental encyclopaedia from the ground up, Wikipedia was established in 2001. Both Skype and MySpace were introduced in 2003; nevertheless, MySpace swiftly rose to the top of the social media heap. The Web began to take on the look we are familiar with in 2004, when it was referred to as “Web 2.0” and used graphics and interactive content.
This cleared the way for the 2004 launches of Digg and Facebook (reserved for college students), as well as YouTube, Twitter, and Hulu in 2006. In the United States, 2008 also gained notoriety as the “Internet presidential election.” Candidates for president financed their campaigns online and marketed their candidacy on websites like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Finally, the introduction of Instagram and Pinterest in 2010 proved crucial.
