The Internet

March 21, 2006

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey sends the world’s first (non-automated) tweet:

“just setting up my twttr”

Soon to be followed by the just as engrossing

“inviting coworkers”

A note to future entrepreneurs: when doing the “first” of anything, it may be for posterity so try to be interesting. Kthnx.

March 20, 2005

Yahoo! acquires the company Ludicorp along with its popular photo-sharing site Flickr. Later in June of 2017, Verizon Purchased Yahoo! and then in April of 2018 SmugMug bought Flickr. It was reported in 2011 that Flickr hosted 6 billion photos.

March 19, 1986

The domains ibm.com and sun.com come online. These domains are considered the 11th and 12th oldest domains in history.

March 16, 1995

The worlds first Wiki, WikiWikiWeb is gets its start as Ward Cunningham sends an e-mail inviting people to add and edit content. Cunningham officially launches WikiWikiWeb 9 days later on March 25th.

A Wiki is a database that can be a community collaboration. Rather than calling his creation “quick-web”, Cunningham said the inspiration for the name Wiki came from the Wiki Wiki shuttle bus he learned of during a trip to Hawaii, “wiki wiki” meaning “quick” or “fast” in the Hawaiian language. Six years later, Wikipedia is launched, although Cunningham has no official involvement.

March 15, 1985

The first Internet domain symbolics.com is registered by Symbolics, a Massachusetts computer company.

March 12, 2008

The video streaming service Hulu is launched to the public. Hulu has since become a focal point for the ongoing development of “streaming TV” along with the agonizing by TV networks and movie studios. It also revealed Alec Baldwin to be an alien, which didn’t surprise anybody.

March 12, 1989

Tim Berners-Lee submits a proposal to CERN for developing a new way of linking and sharing information over the Internet. It was the first time Berners-Lee proposed a system that would ultimately become the World Wide Web. However, this proposal was a relatively vague request to research the details and feasibility of such a system. He would later submit a proposal on November 12, 1990 that much more directly detailed the actual implementation of the World Wide Web. So while some people consider today the birthday of the World Wide Web, I would put forth November 12, 1990 as a more accurate date.

March 10, 2000

The NASDAQ Composite Index reaches 5,048.62 which becomes the peak of the Dot-Com Bubble. Since 1995, led by the growth of the Internet, e-commerce, and all the infrastructure required to support it, the NASDAQ had risen by 400%.  After reaching this peak many factors led to the rapid bursting of the bubble over the course of the next several months in which many online and technology companies shut down, were acquired, or lost large portions of their value. By October 2002 the NASDAQ had fallen 78% losing virtually all its gains during the Dot-Com Bubble.

March 9, 1999

United States Vice President Al Gore gives an interview on CNN’s Late Edition in which he states, “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.” This is the infamous statement which will be widely misquoted as “I invented the Internet.”

March 5, 1995

The Yahoo! search engine officially launches on the Internet. 13 months later, Yahoo! will hold its IPO at a price of $13 per share. Yahoo!’s stock will peak at $475 in January 2000, and fall to $8.02 in September 2001.