Naveed
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Naveed
Probably, the seeds of the Internet’s history began in 1957 in the historical context of the
Cold War, which divided the world into two blocs led by the Soviet Union and the United
States. In that year, the USSR launched the first satellite into space, Sputnik I. In response,
the Americans created the Internet. In response, in 1958, the Americans created the
Advanced Research Projects Agency, ARPA, under the Department of Defence. This
agency had the talents of some 200 scientists focused on creating a network capable of
communicating between several computers located in different places.
Later, in 1965, it was possible to connect two computers: one in Massachusetts and the
other in California by means of a telephone line, although it was not very operational. The
big breakthrough came in 1969 with Michael Elie, who succeeded in connecting a
computer at the University of California with one at the Stanford Research Institute. Soon
after, four more universities joined, and this interconnection was called the Arpanet.
Years later, in 1989, Tim Berners Lee incorporated three new resources: HTML, HTTP
and a programme called Web Browser. They were the basis for making web pages. A year
later, the Internet was born in closed form within CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear
Research based in Switzerland, and in 1991, it finally reached the public.
What were the most important milestones in the early years of the internet?
During the 1990s, there were many milestones and they followed one after the other at a
frenetic pace. For example, in 1990, the first telephone modem was designed, which made
it easier for all of us to access the Internet. The first provider of this service also emerged,
and Arpanet ceased to exist.
In 1991, the first web page could be created thanks to the World Wide Web protocols,
written by Tim Berners Lee and his standards. The first search engine, called Gopher, was
also born, and the first webcam was made. But perhaps one of the most important
innovations was the standardisation of mp3, a compressed file format that allowed the
transmission of sound without loss of quality. This was undoubtedly a revolution for the
music industry.
The first graphical browser, Mosaic, arrived in 1993. Until then, computer literacy was
required to navigate, as text had to be entered and the system was not at all intuitive.
Competitors soon followed, such as Netscape Navigator in 1994.
In 1996, the first webmail was created by HoTMaiL, whose capital letters were a tribute to
the HTML standard, making it the first online email service.
This review of the history of the Internet cannot end without mentioning the appearance of
Google in 1998, as it has revolutionised the way millions of users move around the Internet,
and to this day it is still the great search engine.
The eruption of immediacy. This milestone had to do with the news that revealed the affair
between Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton. This news appeared on the Internet before it
appeared in the traditional print media. It raised awareness of the immediacy that was
going to prevail in society, of the democratisation of information, but also of its possible
manipulation and the possibilities of unprecedented dissemination.
And finally, it is necessary to mention the emergence of social networks, which has given
rise to the dichotomy between increased individualism and a more intense sociability than
in the physical dimension. The Internet has indeed changed us profoundly.