In the past 50 years, the internet has gone from being secluded to being a very socially available entity. Even if we go back 30 years, we find that the presence of the internet is rather bleak. It is hard to imagine before social media, domain and web hosting services, or live to stream. Understanding the internet's timeline may help us see how quickly it is adapting and help us predict the trends for the future. Here is a summary of the past 50 years of internet history.

The 60s and 70s

The internet started to grow in the late 60s, 1969 to be specific. This was when the concept of ARPANET was introduced. ARPANET was the idea that technology could be made for millions of people across the planet. And while there have been rumours about who came up with the idea, such is speculation. No one knows. The project was a collective effort, much like open source is today and involved tech enthusiasts. Some say it was for military reasons. Others say it was for the people. We will never know.

In 1974 the first TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) publication in the institute of electrical and electronic engineers (IEEE) was developed. TCP is the backbone for the internet, allowing computers to exchange information over a network. Essentially in 1974, the internet was born.

The 80s

With the early 80s came the invention of the TCP/IP address. Ips identified specific computers and networks, making it easier to communication s between the two. WAN was introduced a year later in Europe. Still, it was not until 1983 that the internet was operational. Now, this is not the internet that we have today. The connections were relatively slow, not like your top-rated web hosting services of today. The network was based on three networks, with all networks running on TCP/IP technology. It was not until 1984 that the DNS was introduced. Only two were available at the time. These two were .com and .net. Yet, the technology was so new that it did not get a buyer until 1985, when Symbolics.com purchased the first domain. Today, there is an abundance of DNSs on the market and domain name registration services are available from many sources.

The 80s were not done with just the development of the DNS. It also included the first email address. Installation was from a disk, not downloaded. The email culture took off, and communications between individual computers saw a revolution. In 1987 UUNET was developed as the largest internet service provider. 1989 saw the first commercial internet service provider.

The 90s

The 90s began with the first search engine. In 1994 Yahoo was created. At the time, it was the largest search engine available. Yahoo dominated the market for years. In 1998 Google created their search engine and was the dominant search engine.  But it was not just the search engines developed in the 90s that helped the growth of the internet. In 1991 the first www (world wide web) protocol was developed. This birthed several domains and web hosting services. As the internet continued to grow, so did the commercialization of it.

In 1995 the two main markets of today opened. eBay and Amazon became household names. The two continue to be rivals, relying upon and contributing to new developments in internet technology.

2000k to current

The 2000s showed the most change in the internet. While before, it was strictly an informational and purchasing platform, the 2000s made it into a social and connectivity platform. This can be attributed to the .com era. As the DDOs became available in 2000, many decided to use domain and web hosting services to create their web pages. This, in turn, led to the launch of WordPress in 2003 and later to Facebook in 2004. These two entities were trailblazers for more social media like Youtube in 2005 and twitter, then under the name sweet bird, in 2006.

With the number of sites, available security has been a constantly developing issue with the internet. 2014 saw the push to keep sites safe by making the HTTPS the norm. While the Https has been around for a while, it is Google and the Browser community which has made it a means of internet safety. As new domains emerge and new WordPress hosting is available, the types of web pages introduced will continue to shape how we use the internet and the protocols put in place.

The past 50 years

From its early development to today, the internet has grown substantially. Over the past 20 years, the developments have increased, leading us to believe that the changes with the internet will continue to grow exponentially in the next 50 years.