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According to a study carried out by IDC, around 41.76 billion devices were connected to the internet around the world. To give you an idea of how impressive this is, the world population is around 8 billion people; there are five times more connected gadgets than individuals!
It's not crazy to say that the internet is one of humanity's greatest inventions: through it, the way we communicate, work and live from day to day has changed drastically. With a smartphone in hand, you have access to practically all the knowledge acquired by human beings.
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Despite using it for a long time, have you ever stopped to think about its origins? When was the internet born? Who developed it until it became what it is today? These and many other questions will be answered throughout the text. Don't miss it!
The origins of the internet (1960 – 1980)
At the end of the 1960s, when computers were still huge, extremely heavy and slow devices, some researchers were already studying the possibility of transporting data between different machines over long distances.
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Military and academic computers were already experimenting with networks to exchange information and create more agile collaborations on projects. The United States Department of Defense (DoD) launched ARPANET – a network of interconnected computers that connected them to four other North American universities.
At that time, the TCP/IP protocol was used – which still exists today. It is a set of protocols that allows communication between several devices connected to the same network.
ARPANET was highly successful and, over the years, expanded its reach to other educational institutions. In 1971, Leonard Kleinrock sent the first email in history, which was addressed to Douglas Engelbart of the Stanford Research Institute. Unfortunately, the “Login” message was not sent completely due to an error: only “Lo” was sent to Engelbart.
Previously, only direct messaging between devices was possible; sending emails would make communication increasingly robust and effective between the parties. It is important to highlight this great achievement, as it is still part of usage habits around the world today.
Tim Berners-Lee, one of the “fathers of the internet”, posted the first photo on the web. It was in honor of a satirical band known as Les Horrible Cernettes.
Development (1980 – 1990)
In the 1980s, the development of the internet for commercial purposes began. From then on, it was no longer something exclusive to government or educational institutions. Thanks to this phase, businesses of all types were able to expand their influence through the network.
It was in 1983 that DoD disconnected the NCP protocol from ARPANET, replacing it with TCP/IP. This way, the network could connect with others globally.
It was thanks to these important changes that other network protocols were created, such as FTP (File Transfer Protocol). Through it, it was possible to share files of the most varied sizes between different devices connected to the internet. Despite still being used today, the FTP protocol is somewhat outdated; its evolution, known as SFTP, is better suited to the task.
Furthermore, it was in the 1980s that Telnet was created: through it, remote connection to other computers became possible.
Read too: 4 Best password generator apps and websites – SharkFreeApp
Popularization of the internet (1990 – 2000)
This is the third phase of the world wide web, and one of the most important: access providers started to offer the service to the general public. Most connections were made through a modem connected directly to the telephone line.
Users born in the 1980s certainly remember the characteristic (and unforgettable) sound of modems while connecting to the network. It was an often deafening noise, which could disturb light sleepers nearby. But it was the best there was at the time.
The Mosaic browser was released in 1993, and it has helped many people browse the internet more efficiently and comfortably. Other browsers, such as Internet Explorer and Netscape, appeared soon after. Since then, competition has only increased among large companies.
As expected, several online companies began to appear: eBay, Amazon and Yahoo are just a few examples of true “dinosaurs” on the internet, as they thrive and still exist today.
The internet as we know it (2000 – present)
In the late 1990s, broadband connections began to appear, but they were not yet so common. However, it was from the 2000s onwards that cable and fiber optic connections began to become popular, becoming the standard in practically all scenarios.
Thanks to increasingly faster and more reliable connections, companies have developed other digital solutions, such as the evolution of social networks. Yes, evolution and not creation, as the first social network was launched in 1995 by Randy Conrad: Classmates.
Furthermore, blogging and streaming platforms began to appear in droves, each with specific characteristics. On February 14, 2005, YouTube was registered by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim. Today, billions of daily hits are recorded by the platform and hundreds of millions of content are available to users across the planet.
In 2004, Facebook was launched, and after almost 20 years of existence, it continues to be one of the largest social networks in the world.
It is not possible to talk about the evolution of the internet without mentioning the era of mobile devices: despite not being a pioneer on the subject, Apple created the first iPhone in 2007. Thanks to the device's enormous commercial success, several other brands entered the race for a share of the market and, since then, smartphones are as common as breathing.
Evolution never stops
Even the most basic smartphones are much more powerful than very expensive and sophisticated machines from the 1990s and 2000s. This is because the popularization of the internet has taken on a simply impressive form. After all, there are more smartphones than human inhabitants on Earth.
Increasingly faster, safer and more reliable, the internet and all its services are constantly evolving, and you are an important part of this whole story. The reason is simple: everything is still very “new” and the world wide web is still far from having demonstrated its full potential.
