Internet doesn’t require any introductions: you must be reading this blog using Internet, checking your mail and reading news using the same Internet. Internet has no doubt become one of our primary necessities in life and as per a study done in 2012, an average Internet user in India spends 67 minutes on Facebook daily!
Have you ever wondered who sent the first email on the Internet? Who bought the first book on Amazon and who viewed the first video on Youtube? Let us explore some memorable firsts of the Internet:
Contents
1) First Email
Ray Tomlinson, a programmer based in USA, implemented an email system way back in 1971 using APRANET. He is also credited with introducing the @ sign to differentiate the user from the machine.
The first mail he sent was a test mail to himself, typing something like “QWERTYUIOP”. In his own words, “The test messages were entirely forgettable. . . . Most likely the first message was QWERTYIOP or something similar”.
Source: Flickr via whlwcl
2) First Website
The first website was made live on August 6, 1991. Here is the URL of the first ever website
3) First Domain
On March 15, 1985, the first ever domain was registered: Symbolics.com.
4) First Picture Which Was Uploaded On The Internet
This image was the first one to be uploaded on the Internet! Tim Berners-Lee, who is regarded as the father of Internet posted this image on behalf of a comedy band called Les Horrible Cernettes.
5) First Banner Ad Displayed On The Internet
Joe McCambley, a Branding expert from New York used Internet’s first banner ad in October, 1994 to promote seven art museums, sponsored by AT&T. The banner ad was run on HotWired.com.
Here is that historical banner ad:
6) First item sold on eBay
A broken laser pointer was sold for $14.83 in 1995, which became the first ever item to be sold on eBay. The man who purchased this printer said that he collects broken laser pointers. eBay was known as AuctionWeb during that time.
Some other items sold within a week of this first sale were: Marky Mark underwear for $400, a Superman metal lunchbox for $22, and a Toyota Tercel for $3,200.
7) First book sold on Amazon
Everyone knows that Amazon started off with selling books, and then gradually progressed to everything bought and sold under the sun. But which was the first book to be sold on Amazon?
It was Douglas Hofstadter’s “Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought” in the year 1995.
8) First YouTube Video
On April 25, 2005, Youtube co-founder Jawed Karim shot a video at the San Diego Zoo and uploaded the same on Youtube. This became the first ever Youtube video to be uploaded! It has been watched 15 million times as of now. Here is the video:
9) First Blog On the Internet
New York Times have done some deep research and finally concluded that Justin Hall is the “Founding Father of Personal Blogging”. He started a blog in 1994 called Justin’s Links from the Underground which is still running today. Here is a brief history of blogging.
Do you have any list of Internet’s firsts? Do share with us!
