UNI SP4 Study Period 4 2014

The History of The Internet

  • 2014

  • A coding error discovered in April in OpenSSL, encryption software that makes transactions between a computer and a remote secure, makes users vulnerable to having their usernames, passwords, and personal information stolen. Millions of banks, Internet commerce companies, email services, government sites, and social media sites rely on OpenSSL to conduct secure transactions.

  • The coding error was made in 2012. Computer security experts encourage computer users to change their passwords.

  • 2012

  • Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreeson at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide Web, which at this time accounts for merely 1% of all Internet traffic.

  • 2009

  • Another indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp.

  • Gopher, which provides point-and-click navigation, is created at the University of Minnesota and named after the school mascot. Gopher becomes the most popular interface for several years.

  • 2008

  • Microsoft is fined $1.3 billion by the European Commission for further abusing its dominant market position, and failing to comply to their 2004 judgment, which ordered Microsoft to give competitors information necessary to operate with Windows. Since 2004, Microsoft has been fined a total of $2.5 billion by the Commission for not adhering to their ruling.

  • In a San Fransisco federal district court, Judge Jeffrey S. White orders the disabling of Wikileaks.org, a Web site that discloses confidential information. The case was brought by Julius Baer Bank and Trust, located in the Cayman Islands, after a disgruntled ex-employee allegedly provided Wikileaks with stolen documents that implicate the bank in asset hiding, money laundering, and tax evasion. Many web communities, who see the ruling as unconstitutional, publicized alternate addresses for the site and distributed bank documents through their own networks. In response, Judge White issues another order to stop the distribution of bank documents.

  • In a move to challenge Google's dominance of search and advertising on the Internet, software giant Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion.

  • 2004

  • Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreeson at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide Web, which at this time accounts for merely 1% of all Internet traffic.

  • 2001

  • Another indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp.

  • Gopher, which provides point-and-click navigation, is created at the University of Minnesota and named after the school mascot. Gopher becomes the most popular interface for several years.

  • 2001

  • Wikipedia is created.

  • Napster is dealt a potentially fatal blow when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco rules that the company is violating copyright laws and orders it to stop distributing copyrighted music. The file-swapping company says it is developing a subscription-based service. About 9.8 billion electronic messages are sent daily.

  • 2000

  • To the chagrin of the Internet population, deviant computer programmers begin designing and circulating viruses with greater frequency. "Love Bug" and "Stages" are two examples of self-replicating viruses that send themselves to people listed in a computer user's email address book. The heavy volume of email messages being sent and received forces many infected companies to temporarily shut down their clogged networks. The Internet bubble bursts, as the fountain of investment capital dries up and the Nasdaq stock index plunges, causing the initial public offering (IPO) window to slam shut and many dotcoms to close their doors.

  • 1999

  • College student Shawn Fanning invents Napster, a computer application that allows users to swap music over the Internet. The number of Internet users worldwide reaches 150 million by the beginning of 1999. More than 50% are from the United States. "E-commerce" becomes the new buzzword as Internet shopping rapidly spreads.

  • Google opens its first office, in California. And MySpace.com is launched.

  • 1998

  • Google opens its first office, in California.

  • 1997

  • The term "weblog" is coined. It's later shortened to "blog."

  • On July 8, 1997, Internet traffic records are broken as the NASA website broadcasts images taken by _Pathfinder_ on Mars. The broadcast generates 46 million hits in one day.

  • 1996

  • Approximately 45 million people are using the Internet, with roughly 30 million of those in North America (United States and Canada), 9 million in Europe, and 6 million in Asia/Pacific (Australia, Japan, etc.). 43.2 million (44%) U.S. households own a personal computer, and 14 million of them are online.

  • 1995

  • Sun Microsystems releases the Internet programming language called Java.

  • Sun Microsystems releases the Internet programming language called Java.

  • 1994

  • Initial commerce sites are established and mass marketing campaigns are launched via email, introducing the term "spamming" to the Internet vocabulary.

  • Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark start Netscape Communications. They introduce the Navigator browser.

  • 1993

  • Mosaic is developed by Marc Andreeson at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). It becomes the dominant navigating system for the World Wide Web, which at this time accounts for merely 1% of all Internet traffic.

  • 1991

  • Another indexing system, WAIS (Wide Area Information Server), is developed by Brewster Kahle of Thinking Machines Corp.

  • Gopher, which provides point-and-click navigation, is created at the University of Minnesota and named after the school mascot. Gopher becomes the most popular interface for several years.

  • 1990

  • And a new threat began!

  • The first effort to index the Internet is created by Peter Deutsch at McGill University in Montreal, who devises Archie, an archive of FTP sites.

  • 1988

  • The World (world.std.com) debuts as the first provider of dial-up Internet access for consumers.

  • Tim Berners-Lee of CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) develops a new technique for distributing information on the Internet. He calls it the World Wide Web. The Web is based on hypertext, which permits the user to connect from one document to another at different sites on the Internet via hyperlinks (specially programmed words, phrases, buttons, or graphics). Unlike other Internet protocols, such as FTP and email, the Web is accessible through a graphical user interface.

  • 1988

  • A virus called the Internet Worm temporarily shuts down about 10% of the world's Internet servers.

  • 1985

  • Quantum Computer Services, which later changes its name to America Online, debuts. It offers email, electronic bulletin boards, news, and other information.

  • 1984

  • Domain Name System (DNS) is established, with network addresses identified by extensions such as .com, .org, and .edu.

  • Writer William Gibson coins the term "cyberspace."

  • 1982

  • The word "Internet" is used for the first time.

  • 1976

  • Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter and running mate Walter Mondale use email to plan campaign events.

  • Queen Elizabeth sends her first email. She's the first state leader to do so.

  • 1973

  • To Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is designed and in 1983 it becomes the standard for communicating between computers over the Internet. One of these protocols, FTP (File Transfer Protocol), allows users to log onto a remote computer, list the files on that computer, and download files from that computer.

  • 1972

  • Electronic mail is introduced by Ray Tomlinson, a Cambridge, Mass., computer scientist. He uses the @ to distinguish between the sender's name and network name in the email address.

  • 1969

  • ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency) goes online in December, connecting four major U.S. universities. Designed for research, education, and government organizations, it provides a communications network linking the country in the event that a military attack destroys conventional communications systems.