A DECADE OF THE WEB
Throwing it back to innovations that changed IT.
2010
Azure Has Arrived
Microsoft launches its cloud computing platform Azure - designed to develop and manage applications across web and mobile.
Cloudflare Launch
Initially nicknamed as “Project Web Wall,” Cloudflare releases its web protection and infrastructure services.
“It’s A Double Rainbow. What Does It Mean?”
A man marvels at a double rainbow while recording it. The internet goes wild.
2011
Continue Watching?
Netflix introduces its online video streaming service. It allows users to stream full movies over the internet.
There’s Two Billion of Us on Here
Number of internet users reaches 2 billion.
2012
Challenger Approaching
Google Chrome becomes a threat in the browser wars, claiming more than 20% of the global web browser market in less than three years since its launch.
Host With The Most
Amazon becomes the largest hosting location by number of web-facing computers (118,000), knocking China Telecom from first place (116,000).
2013
Amazon, We Have A Problem
Amazon site is down for 40 minutes and loses $4.8 million.
The Stream Team
Netflix and YouTube account for over 50% of internet traffic measured by bytes.
2014
The Web We Want
The 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee calls for an internet bill of rights to protect web users’ privacy and freedom of speech. “Our rights are being infringed more and more on every side, and the danger is that we get used to it,” he warns. “So I want to use the 25th anniversary for us all to do that, to take the web back into our own hands and define the web we want for the next 25 years.”
Three Comma Club
The number of web servers surpasses 1 billion.
2015
The Browser Wars Are Over
Rising to the top from third place just a few years ago, Chrome has officially beat Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer for dominance in the internet browser wars.
IPv4 Has Run Out
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) announces it had given out the last of the IPv4 addresses it had in its free pool for North America.
1 in 4 Websites
WordPress powers 25% of all websites as of early November.
2016
Gotta Catch ′Em All
Pokémon GO is downloaded more than 10 million times within a week of release and becomes the fastest growing app in history.
The Future of IP
IPv6 reaches 10% deployment globally and becomes the dominant (>50%) internet protocol for U.S. mobile networks.
The Zettabyte Era
Annual global IP traffic surpasses 1 zettabyte.
2017
The New Standard
IPv6 becomes Internet Standard—upgraded from Draft Standard status.
A Little Birdy Told Me…More
Twitter officially expands the character limit from 140 characters to 280 characters.
Too Many Tweets
The U.S. Library of Congress announces it will no longer archive every tweet.
2018
Over 50% of the World Is Online
More than half the world’s population is using the internet, according to the International Telecommunication Union.
How the Cookie Crumbles
The European Union GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) law goes into effect to standardize and strengthen data protection policies for EU residents and member nations.
2019
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Disney+ crashes on its first day, preventing users from connecting with the highly anticipated streaming service. Seeking nostalgia, 10 million users sign up within one day of launch.
Google’s Quantum Leap
Google formally claims to have achieved quantum supremacy.
2020
We Went Home and Stayed There
By shifting from working in-office to a large percent of the
population working from home, tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Alphabet reaped
the rewards—taking in a combined 18% more revenue in YoY in Q3.
TikTok Danced to the Top
The social media app boomed from the pandemic boredom, growing 457%
YoY revenue and reaching 700 million active users.
2021
Facebook (aka Meta) Gets a Thumbs Down
The social network and each of its subsidiaries (Messenger,
Instagram, WhatsApp, Mapillary, and Oculus) went down worldwide for over six hours, causing a loss of at
least $60 million in advertising revenue.
Internet Users More Than Doubled in 10 Years
After reporting 2 billion active users in 2011, the internet is
estimated to be 4.66 billion users strong, creating a projected 74 zettabytes of information in this
year alone.
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