11 Firsts In Internet History
Published Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM - Single-page view
People on the Internet love firsts. I can only conclude this based on the number of comment threads that begin with someone writing "First!"
So I went on a hunt for 11 Internet firsts and found some really interesting ones... although, sadly, I was unable to track down the first time someone left the first "First!" comment.
Continue reading on page two...
This list was published on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM under the category Web & Tech.
Published Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM - Single-page view
People on the Internet love firsts. I can only conclude this based on the number of comment threads that begin with someone writing "First!"
So I went on a hunt for 11 Internet firsts and found some really interesting ones... although, sadly, I was unable to track down the first time someone left the first "First!" comment.
First Image. The first image in web history was... four women, all of whom now probably regret being part of the first image in web history.
A programmer named Silvano de Gennaro worked for CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research, located in Geneva, Switzerland... aka the birthplace of the World Wide Web).
In 1992, the non-ManBearPig-focused founder of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, had just built this new information system called the World Wide Web, and created the first website, http://info.cern.ch.
Berners-Lee asked Gennaro to scan some photos from a CERN party and post them on that page. Gennaro didn't really get what he was talking about but scanned in the photos, FTPed them to the server and linked them to a page. The picture of the four women, complete with their early '90s "Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead" fashion sense, was the first one ever viewed in a web browser.
And if the cougar in the silver sparkles had just leaned a tiny bit more, this could've simultaneously been the first nude photo on the Web. [Source]- First E-mail. E-mail as we know it was created by a programmer named Ray Tomlinson, in 1971. People had been sending electronic messages before... but only to people on the same computer. Tomlinson created the e-mail structure that's still used today -- guy@site.stuff. (Apologies, by the way, to the real guy@site.stuff, whose e-mail I just exposed to hundreds of hungry spambots. Hope you like hearing about the magical powers of Acai berries!)
By bringing the "@" symbol in, it separated the e-mail user from his machine, and, therefore, he could send his electronic message to anyone on any machine. (I use the male pronouns here not because I'm sexist, but because no woman in the history of women would've been dorky enough to be an e-mail pioneer at this stage. Not even you, Marie Curie.)
So what did Tomlinson write in his first e-mail? He... doesn't remember. Best he can recall, quote, "the test messages were entirely forgettable... most likely the first message was 'QWERTYUIOP' or something similar."
The first real e-mail he sent was a message to his co-workers... explaining how to use e-mail over the network. [Source] - First Spam E-mail. With the first real e-mail out of the way, the door was open for the first spam e-mail. Although, based on best estimates, it took a solid seven years before someone realized that strangers on the Internet were the best target market for unsolicited penile enlargement help.
The first spam e-mail was sent out in 1978 by Gary Thuerk, a marketing rep for DEC.
(That's the Digital Equipment Corporation. You'd probably recognize their logo. They ended up going belly up in 1998. And for a computer company to die in 1998, you know they did NOT have their shit together. In 1998, you could slap the letter "e" before any word, call yourself a company and make a billion going public the next morning.)
The Digital logo.
Gary sent this e-mail, unsolicited, to every available west coast e-mail address he could get his hands on:DIGITAL WILL BE GIVING A PRODUCT PRESENTATION OF THE NEWEST MEMBERS OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY; THE DECSYSTEM-2020, 2020T, 2060, AND 2060T. THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY OF COMPUTERS HAS EVOLVED FROM THE TENEX OPERATING SYSTEM AND THE DECSYSTEM-10
The reaction was... not good. In fact, this spam message got even more hate than spam today. Because the modems in 1978 were slow, downloading a long e-mail like this (long because it had so many people's e-mails listed) could choke people's computers. It even, apparently, shut down a system at the University of Utah, and drew a strong complaint from the Defense Communications Agency. [Source]COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE. BOTH THE DECSYSTEM-2060T AND 2020T OFFER FULL ARPANET SUPPORT UNDER THE TOPS-20 OPERATING SYSTEM. THE DECSYSTEM-2060 IS AN UPWARD EXTENSION OF THE CURRENT DECSYSTEM 2040 AND 2050 FAMILY. THE DECSYSTEM-2020 IS A NEW LOW END MEMBER OF THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AND FULLY SOFTWARE COMPATIBLE WITH ALL OF THE OTHER DECSYSTEM-20 MODELS.
WE INVITE YOU TO COME SEE THE 2020 AND HEAR ABOUT THE DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY AT THE TWO PRODUCT PRESENTATIONS WE WILL BE GIVING IN CALIFORNIA THIS MONTH. THE LOCATIONS WILL BE:
     TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1978 - 2 PM
     HYATT HOUSE (NEAR THE L.A. AIRPORT)
     LOS ANGELES, CA
     THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1978 - 2 PM
     DUNFEY'S ROYAL COACH
     SAN MATEO, CA
     (4 MILES SOUTH OF S.F. AIRPORT AT BAYSHORE, RT 101 AND RT 92)
A 2020 WILL BE THERE FOR YOU TO VIEW. ALSO TERMINALS ON-LINE TO OTHER DECSYSTEM-20 SYSTEMS THROUGH THE ARPANET. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO CONTACT THE NEAREST DEC OFFICE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EXCITING DECSYSTEM-20 FAMILY.
First Banner Ad. AT&T is responsible for the first banner ad ever.
The first banner ad ever.
The people behind "Wired" magazine decided to start the first commercial web magazine, called "Hotwired", in October of 1994. And they put the word out: Buy advertising in our new, online-only magazine.
AT&T was the first company that did. And instead of taking the straightforward approach, they used an online advertising strategy that would launch a billion "punch the monkeys"... a mystery ad trying to goad readers into clicking.
But who knows -- in 1994, that might have worked. [Source]- First Item Sold on eBay. Pierre Omidyar started eBay in September of 1995. And Omidyar sold the first item on eBay... a broken laser pointer that went for $14.
And, quite frankly, I can't think of a first item more emblematic of the eBay experience than a broken laser pointer. - First Tweet. Biz Stone, one of the co-founders of Twitter, posted the first Tweet ever... just 11 minutes before the other co-founder, Evan Williams. On March 21st, 2006, at 12:51 PM, Stone Twittered: "just setting up my twttr".
And, quite frankly, I can't think of a first Tweet more emblematic of the Twitter experience than Stone's punctuation-, capitalization- and spell check-free offering. [Source]
Continue reading on page two...
This list was published on Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:00:00 AM under the category Web & Tech.
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It's all written by Sam Greenspan, a Midwest-born, classically-trained journalist who now tries to make a dollar out of 15 cents in Los Angeles. (It's hard to be legit and still pay the rent.)
Read more about 11 Points and Sam here.
For information about reprinting 11 Points content, or for quotes/interviews for your newspaper, magazine, website, TV program, or radio show, contact Sam via e-mail at
