The internet has become a cultural, economical and life changing technological phenomenon.

Enough can not be said about this incredible technology. However, the internet is not one
single invention; it is a simple idea that has evolved throughout the decades into something
bigger than us all. While the internet was started fairly recently, today we are still at the tip of
the iceberg of what this technology in all its many forms can help us achieve. So in essence
the internet has already and will continue to revolutionize the world. Even as its beginnings
were humble, no one could have predicted its amazing growth through the last several
decades. The internet has brought us so much information and not only to the social and
business elite, but to the entire world.

Looking back, the essential idea of the internet is extremely basic, however with several
innovations, the internet has grown and evolved to where it is currently at today.

Typically the 20th century was defined by communications that went from one major source to
thousands or millions of people at a time. This type of communications was characterized by
television and radio broadcasters which sent out communications signals to TV sets and
radios around the country and world. While the telephone evolved and became ubiquitous in
the world as a way for an individual to reach out and talk with a specific person, this type of
communications usually involved mostly two people, or a handful of people at most if you
were on a conference call. However, with the advent of the internet, a new type of
communications technology would be available, where not only can two people communicate
simultaneously, but thousands, millions and yes even billions of people at the same time.

Again, the old style of communication technologies not only limited who was able to send a
message (think about the big 3 TV networks of the 20th century), but this technology didn’t
allow others to offer their opinion or collaborate. This is just many of the reasons that the
internet has grown so far, so fast. The internet is able to have an impact on our entire society
whether it is in education, our social circles, military, business, etc. While most may think the
history of the internet started in the early 90’s or even the 80’s, the idea of the internet started
much earlier- back to the 1950’s.

The Early Beginnings of the Internet

With the launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957, America feared that the Soviet Union would
not only militarize space, but be able to gain a huge advantage over us and this threatened our
very security. In reaction to the launching of Sputnik, the USA tried to come up with ideas in
how to protect us against the Soviet Union and diminish their strategic advantages. One of the
ways that we responded to this crisis was to create ARPA (Advanced Research Project
Agency). Now known as DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), this
agency was given the mission to create technologies that would help give our military a high
tech edge. The goal was to once again lead in the arms race, as well as protect our country and
security.

While DARPA was launched in the late 1950’s, it wasn’t till 1962 that the first ideas about a
web or interconnected net type of system were formed. First written about by J.C.R. Licklider
of MIT in August of 1962, Licklider wrote several memos in what he termed was a “Galactic
Network”. In essence, this Galactic Network was able to access information in electronic
form- either by data or programs from a large network of computers. The key was that all of
the computers in this Galactic Network would be some way connected to each other. In that
year, Licklider headed up the first computer research program for DARPA.

Besides the idea of a Galactic Network, there were other ideas and events that played a part in
ultimately creating the early internet. Another event that figured prominently into the history
of the internet is a commissioned study by the USAF on how the military would be able to
keep and maintain control and command of airplanes, bombers and nuclear missiles during
and after a nuclear attack. Pretty much, the USAF wanted to understand the best ways to
create a decentralized network of communications in order to run their branch of the military
during and after a nuclear strike. The important point was that this command would have to be
decentralized, so no matter the extend of damage the military would still be able to control it’s
nuclear weapons, airplanes and bombers in order to counter strike or protect itself. The
original study was commissioned and overseen by Paul Beran, a member of the RAND
Corporation.

As the RAND Corporation completed its final report of the study, Paul Beran suggested that
one way to achieve decentralization and accomplish the goals put forth by the USAF is to
institute a type of technology called packet switching in a network.

The First Internet- ARPANET

The original internet was known as the ARPANET. The ARPANET was pretty much the first
configuration of a network of computers and while in its very early stages, the ARPANET
was

Arpanet Diagram

a huge springboard of innovation to the technologies we now use today. The physical
construction of the ARPANET occurred in 1968 and it used the Honeywell minicomputer for
its base. In fact, it took a network of 4 Honeywell minicomputers to create the first
ARPANET, these computers or nodes were located at four separate universities including: the

University of California at Santa Barbara, the University of California at Los Angeles, SRI at
Stanford and the University of Utah. While the network was originally supposed to have a
line speed of only 2.4 kbps (thousand bits per second), technology was already available to
boost the line speed to 50 kbps. It is also important to note that during the 1960’s, important
contributions to computing and communications changed our world completely,
unfortunately, these innovation, inventions and contributions are unknown or unnamed today.
As the first internet- the ARPANET was in place in 1969, the internet started to build up
steam and practicality during the 1970’s.

Google, Today’s Ultimate Search Engine

While Yahoo was the pretty much the first major search engine, a few years later Google took
over the reigns and became the de facto search engine and one of the largest companies in the
world ( by market capitalization). Google too started at a university. It originally started as a
research project to make searching the web more effective. During the early and mid 90’s
search engines primarily used meta tags and on-page information to rank and include web
pages into the directory. Unfortunately, this system was easily gamed and the information that
an individual searched for did not turn up the results that were relevant, a better method of
search needed to be developed. Google created what is now known as Page Rank. This is an
algorithm that bases the relevance or importance of a web page on the weighted sum of the
page ranks that linked to the corresponding page. The more a web page correlated with topics,
the more relevant a page would be and this page would be ranked higher for that specific
search term.

In turned out that from the very beginning, Google’s main hypothesis was correct. The
popularity of the site and it’s clean almost baron home page without the clutter of advertising
was seen as attractive to many. However, not only was Google a great search engine that
delivered extremely relevant results, it was able to monetize it’s technology with targeted text
ads that made Google.com one of the most profitable companies in the history of the world.
Accessing the Internet

While the internet grew in leaps and bounds during the 1990’s, it was fueled in part, because
it was more and more easier to access. For instance, during the early 1990’s, many accessed
the web via an ISP or Internet Service Provider. Since broadband technology was mostly in
development in those years or utilized by big corporations and organizations that could afford
T-1 or T-3 lines, most individuals utilized dial up access to the internet. For the most part,
using a computer dial up modem usually gave you speeds of about 14Kbps to 28Kbps. During
the later part of the decade, faster speeds were realized with top rated dial modems that could
deliver up to 56 Kbps. During the very late 90’s newer technology was starting to first come
to market, this included cable modems and DSL modems. Cable modems utilized the
bandwidth of the TV cable that came to most people’s home. DSL utilized technology to turn
a regular home or business telephone connection into a high speed pipe to the internet. While
dial up service was relatively affordable, usually around the $20 mark, broadband in its initial
stages was much more expensive, usually close to the $100 or more price range. One
company that took the ISP to a new level was AOL. AOL not only combined a way to access
the internet, but pretty much created a walled community with plenty of internet applications
for use by its members.

AOL

Besides Yahoo and Google, another huge force for making it easier for the general public to
utilize the web was AOL (America Online). During much of the 1990’s many households saw
the internet as a foreign technology that was not that easy to use. However AOL was focused
on these new, non-technical users. AOL offered and still does a very easy, non technical way
of experiencing the web and the internet. AOL offered its own proprietary software that
included many of the services that most wanted from the web including email. Some
journalists went on to call the ease at which AOL was to use as being the “internet on training
wheels”. While in the late 1990’s AOL had close to 30 million subscribers that utilized a dial
up connection, as broadband took over, AOL lost the bulk of their monthly subscribers and
now its service has seen its prominence much diminished.
Over the years, AOL had an enormous influence on introducing plenty of web services to the
masses including email, chat rooms, instant messenger, and more.

The Many Applications for Internet Use

The History of the internet would not be complete without mentioning the many applications
that fueled its growth. Throughout the years, many applications and innovations have made
the internet and specifically the World Wide Web a destination for not only individuals, but
businesses. Here are just a few of the technologies that have a considerable impact on the way
we communicate and do business.

Email- the Internet’s Killer App

Most would say that Email was and still continues to be the killer application that makes the
internet irresistible as a technology for both business and individuals. It’s hard to fathom a
world without email; however it wasn’t that long ago that we relied on post or at most the fax.
Email has made sending a text message half way around the world instantly child’s play. Not
only was it fast, easy and very effective, it was free. Originally conceived in 1972, email is
now essential to practically all types of businesses and personal communications. We still
usually log on only to check our email and whether you send one email, two or thousands the
cost is free. Today, email has grown to include not only a text message, but all types of media,
hypertext links, etc.

Email has grown in other ways as well. When it was originally conceived, you needed your
own server, however today there are plenty of free email services online where you can access
your own email account. Whether you use Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Gmail, accessing mail from
your computer or online is usually free and easy. In addition, web based email does not
require you to be at your computer to check your email, you can be at any location around the
world to read, write and send email.

The Innovation of the Forum

For those that used the internet in the 80’s and early 90’s, one way to access information was
the digital bulletin board. Bulletin board systems were like little internet communities. A user
would dial up the internet on a phone line and either upload, download or write messages to a
bulletin board. Before the web page, information was usually exchanged at these types of
destinations. The early bulletin boards turned into the forums of today. Today, you can visit a
wide variety of forums to discuss cars, music, health, sports, etc. Not only can you create a
thread or topic to talk about, but you can read others comments or respond to other threads.
These mini communities helped to forge the internet and still play a huge role in the social
aspects of the internet today.

Online Dating

Another social aspect of the internet that fueled its growth throughout the last two decades is
online dating. While many don’t realize it, online dating has had a huge impact on how we
meet and date today. While people met using digital bulletin boards in the early years, once
AOL became popular, chat rooms became one way to meet a wide selection of people
instantly. Chat rooms were a popular application for AOL users. You can join a general chat,
where you can talk to 20 or more people in a room at one time or join a chat room that had a
specific topic or orientation. And while many people might have not went online to find a date
at first, with so much demand for chatting and meeting people, websites started to spring up to
specifically meet people.

Social Networking

Besides search engines, web browsers and ISP’s other innovations helped make the internet
what it is today. The social aspects of the internet have been incredible and the internet over
the last few decades have touched pretty much all of our lives. However, social networks have
taken these aspects a step further making it easier than ever to stay close to friends, be part of
a large online group or organization and mobilize the masses for a wide variety of political
and social causes. Two social networks that have become huge over the last few years are
MySpace.com and Facebook.com. Both are pretty similar, but have enough differences to be
unique on their own. They allow an individual to set up their own page on the network and to
keep track and make friends easily. Also these pages are made to be updated frequently with
images, video, audio and text.

Blogs

Blogs have become quite popular in recent years. Originally, it was static web pages that were
the most popular way for sites and developers to post text, images and other media on the
web. However, as it became more and more easier to access the internet and more and more
people wanted to share their thoughts and ideas instead of create an entire site, blog or
weblogs became popular. Blogs help either individuals or organizations communicate to an
audience on a regular basis. They are much easy to update than the typical website and most
blogs offer commentary, news, thoughts and the occasional rant. Some blogs also offer media
on a regular basis, sometimes they are referred to as podcasts for audio media or a vlog for
video media.

And while blogs usually take up a rather long form of writing with many entries well over
several hundred words, a new type of blogging has become mainstream- twittering.
Twitter.com offers the ability for many bloggers to send smaller messages (micro-blogging)
to the web easily and conveniently. The messages can only be 140 characters or smaller.
However, Twitter.com has taken off and it has become an international phenomenon.

Economic Influence on the History of the Internet

Enough can’t be said about the economic impact that the internet has brought to the world.
Perhaps trillions of dollars have been created in wealth from the internet and billions of lives
have been changed due to e-commerce. While the internet started to grow quickly in the late
80’s, it grew exponentially, once the US government allowed it to include commercial
websites which brought to the internet e-commerce.

The ability for commercial enterprise to take place on the internet had a huge affect on the
internet. The US gave the green light in 1991. However, many in the business world began to
take note a few years later when an initial public offering (IPO) of Netscape started the
Dot.com Boom. Netscape was the first popular web browser. It went up for IPO with an
opening stock price of $28, however it closed at a whopping $75 per share. This sent
shockwaves through the market as demand for tech companies specifically involved in the
internet took place. Many internet based IPO’s had incredible results including: Amazon.com,
Ebay.com, AOL.com and Yahoo.com.

While the market and IPO’s made many rich, it also had another effect, billions of dollars
were being funneled into the tech sector and specifically to companies that were developing
technologies or innovating the internet and the web. Throughout the 1990’s lots of growth in
the overall world economy was attributed to computers and the internet and it continues to
this day. In fact, the global economy can be attributed to many of the innovations of the
internet. With more and more of the world’s population able to do business online, the world
markets are more intertwined than ever before.

Google Goes Public

Another incredible success story is Google. Obviously, Google is the premier search engine,
however it is also one of the largest companies in the world due to its stock value (market
capitalization). In addition, Google has played a big role in helping small businesses advertise
with their contextual text ads not only helping many websites draw traffic to their site, but
also helping content creators who develop their own web sites and blogs to monetize their
site. This affect creates more and more quality content on the web.

Business has Changed Due to the Internet

Conducting business has changed drastically over the last 20 years due to both the computer
and the internet, never to be the same again. In fact, with email, VOIP (voice over internet
protocol), cloud computing, online banking and other services, it is easier and more
convenient than ever to do business. In fact, many of the physical barriers of conducting
business have been erased. Today, many can easily work from home or become tech nomads
working from either a coffee shop or half way around the world when on vacation. The world
has definitely changed due to the internet’s ability to communicate with ease from practically
any location. In a few short decades, the internet has grown from a network of a few dozen
computers to practically connecting the entire world’s population. These last 20 years have
seen tremendous growth, what the internet has in store for the next 20 years can only fathom
the mind.