Seonglae ChoStarted with ARPANET, developed in 1967 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under the U.S. Department of Defense
- Map of ARPANET (1977)Early map of ARPANET connecting 111 computer terminals, built under the Department of Defense with the goal of resource sharing between research institutions.
- First SPAM Email (1978)DEC marketing manager Gary Thuerk sent a promotional email about DECSYSTEM-20 mainframes to 320 ARPANET users, generating approximately $13 million in sales.
- First Smiley (1982)Scott Fahlman at Carnegie Mellon University first proposed using
:-)and:-(on bulletin boards to distinguish between jokes and serious posts.
- The Hacker's Dictionary (1975→1983)Starting as the Jargon File and widely distributed around 1983, this compilation of hacker culture terminology, jokes, and folklore contributed to the formation of online culture.
- Usenet Newsgroups (1985)A distributed discussion system developed by Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis that spread concepts like FAQs, flaming, and spam through topic-based bulletin boards.
- First MP3 (1987)Karlheinz Brandenburg used Suzanne Vega's "Tom's Diner" as a test for compression, improving vocal quality and playing a crucial role in completing the MP3 format.
- Morris Worm (1988)A worm distributed by Robert Morris to measure internet scale that, due to programming errors, paralyzed approximately 10% of computers worldwide.
- Dave Rhodes Chain Letter (1988)An early internet meme known as "Make Money Fast" that spread through email and Usenet like a pyramid scheme.
- Internet Relay Chat (1988)A real-time group chat protocol developed by Jarkko Oikarinen that revolutionized communication methods in early online communities.
The World Wide Web was developed in 1989 and distributed in 1991 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee while working at CERN
- Earliest LOL (1989)First documented use of "LOL" appeared in a FidoNet BBS network newsletter.
- AOL Dial Up (1991)Popular dial-up internet service started by AOL, known for its iconic modem connection sound that became widespread.
- First Website (1991)Tim Berners-Lee launched the world's first website (info.cern.ch) in December 1990, hosted on a CERN NeXT computer.
- Early Web Photo (1992)A photo of CERN staff band Les Horribles Cernettes was uploaded as one of the first web photos, opening the door to expanded web content.
- First Webcam (1993)Installed to monitor a coffee pot in Cambridge University's Trojan Room, this first webcam provided black and white images at 3 frames per minute.
- Severe Tire Damage (1993)The first music streaming event where a rock band performance at Xerox PARC was broadcast worldwide through MBone.
- "What is internet, anyway?" (1994)A broadcast segment on the TODAY show where Katie Couric and others discussed the concept of the internet.
- PizzaNet (1994)Pizza Hut's first online pizza ordering website, initially offered to the Santa Cruz area.
- Justin's Links from the Underground (1994)An early blog started by 19-year-old Justin Hall that shared HTML tutorials and personal stories, contributing to the spread of blogging culture.
- Yahoo! (1994)Started as a web directory created by Stanford graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo, later evolving into a search engine.
- White House Page (1994)The first official White House homepage established by the Clinton administration, offering a guestbook, presidential email, and virtual tours.
- GeoCities (1994–2009)Free web hosting service founded by David Bohnett and John Rezner that categorized user sites by themed "cities," acquired by Yahoo! in 1999 and shut down in 2009.
- FogCam (1994– )Started as a student project at San Francisco State University, this longest-running webcam transmits campus views (including fog) every 20 seconds.
- First Amazon Order (1995)The first non-employee customer John Wainwright ordered Douglas Hofstadter's "Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies" on April 3, 1995.
- eBay AuctionWeb (1995)Pierre Omidyar launched "AuctionWeb" during Labor Day weekend, pioneering the user-to-user online auction model, with the first transaction being a broken laser pointer.
- Space Jam (1996)Warner Bros. official promotional website for the movie, where the production team learned from HTML books while showcasing experimental design.
- Dancing Baby (1996)A GIF animation meme born as an accidental result of a 3D Studio Max plugin demo that spread through emails and forums.
- McDonald's Page (1996)The first official McDonald's homepage featuring McTrivia quizzes and an interactive world tour.
- Apple Homepage (1996)Apple's 1996 homepage reflecting changes before and after Steve Jobs' return while the company faced financial crisis.
- Beanie Babies (1996)Collectible plush toys developed by Ty Warner that sparked online fan culture by printing URLs on product tags.
- Heaven's Gate (1996–1997)A UFO cult that operated its own web design company, with the site remaining frozen with their final message.
- Pepsi World (1996)A radical astrological website featuring Flash mini-games, horoscopes, and promotion for Shaquille O'Neal's album.
- First Emoji Set (1997)
J-Phone introduced the first mobile emoji set with 90 emojis on their SkyWalker DP-211SW phone.
- Year 2000 Bug (1997–2000)Concerns about two-digit year storage leading to potential computer failures prompted worldwide preparedness initiatives.
- Ask Jeeves (1997)A natural language search engine that processed over one million queries daily using question templates and a verification team.
- The Hampster Dance (1998)A hamster-themed webpage created by Deidre LaCarte on Geocities that garnered 17 million views and evolved into a meme.
- Google Homepage (1998)Larry Page and Sergey Brin released their beta version search engine with PageRank technology that outperformed existing search engines.
- Napster (1999)A P2P MP3 sharing service created by Shawn Fanning that reached 20 million users and processed 14,000 song downloads per minute.
- Netflix Homepage (1999)Early Netflix homepage that introduced online DVD rental service starting with a library of about 900 titles.
- Zombo.com (1999)A parody site showing only empty promises that "you can do anything," widely considered "the most useless thing on the internet."
- Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music (2000)A Flash-based interactive guide to 90s electronic music developed by Kenneth Taylor ("Ishkur") in just two weeks.
- Homestar Runner (2000)A Flash animation series created by Brothers Chaps that gained massive popularity through interactive elements like Strong Bad Email.
- Wikipedia (2001)After Nupedia failed, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger pivoted to an open wiki format, gathering 600 articles in the first month.
- Helicopter Game (2002)A simple Flash helicopter obstacle avoidance game created for the BBC drama "Attachments" website.
- Friendster (2003)An early social network launched by Jonathan Abrams that gained 3 million users before declining as MySpace gained popularity.
- MySpace Tom (2003)MySpace, created by Tom Anderson, established itself as a music and self-expression platform by supporting customizable HTML and CSS.
- The Facebook (2004)Mark Zuckerberg started a campus social network exclusively for Harvard students based on real names and directory services.
- Club Penguin (2004)A virtual world for children that offered early social media experiences through purple circles, party events, and mini-games.
- You Wouldn't Steal a Car (2004)An anti-piracy PSA shown before DVDs that became the subject of memes and parodies.
- Numa Numa (2004)Gary Brolsma's webcam video lip-syncing to O-Zone's "Dragostea Din Tei" received an explosive response on Newgrounds.
- Million Dollar Homepage (2005)Alex Tew's college tuition project sold one million pixels at $1 each, raising $1,037,100.
- Me at the Zoo (2005)The first YouTube video (19 seconds) uploaded by co-founder Jawed Karim, filmed at the San Diego Zoo featuring elephants.
- Reddit Homepage (2005)A link-based voting site created by two Y Combinator graduates that established the concept of "the front page of the internet."
- The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny (2005)A parody Flash animation by Neil Cicierega depicting various pop culture icons battling each other, which garnered 13 million views.
- First Tweet (2006)Jack Dorsey posted "just setting up my twttr" as Twitter's first tweet.
- Line Rider (2006)A mouse-drawing based Flash sledding game developed by Boštjan Cadež that gained cult popularity, generating 11,000 YouTube videos.
- The Impossible Quiz (2007)A Flash game consisting of 110 absurd questions that became a phenomenon in classrooms and online with its complex logic puzzles.
- An Internet Communicator (2007)Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone as an "internet communicator," which initially received lukewarm reception but went on to usher in the mobile-first web era.
