Dr T. Matthew Ciolek,
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies,
Australian National University, Canberra ACT 0200, Australia
tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au
http://www.ciolek.com/PEOPLE/ciolek-tm.html
Document created: 14 Mar 2000. Last updated: 26 Apr 2010
This document, intended as a reliable electronic reference tool,
provides a timeline for three types of developments and milestones:
(1) advances in long distance person-to-person communication;
(2) advances in storage, replication, cataloguing, finding, and retrieval of data;
(3) standardisation of concepts and tools for long distance interaction.
The advancements may have a:
T echnical (hardware),
C onceptual (software),
or an O rganisational aspect,
or represent an important M ilestone in the history of a given invention,
and are annotated as such in the timeline.
This document is only as good as the collated information itself. Please email any additional
data and corrections to tmciolek@coombs.anu.edu.au. Your
collaboration and input is warmly appreciated.
work in progress - tmc
ca. 2000
- [M] A 1,339,000 km strong network of long-distance trade routes spans the seas (a total of 410,000 km) and lands (a total of 929,000 km) of Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas (Ciolek, forthcoming).
2000 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 72.3 M hosts (in fact, over 72,398,000 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2000).
2000 Feb
- [M]Altavista introduces new multimedia features, with separate search centers for
MP3/audio, images and video search. It now gives access to an index of over 30 million
documents, including over 1 million MP3 files (Byrne 2000).
2000 Mar
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) keeps on file 14 terabytes of archived copies of the WWW sites from the early 1996 onwards. For comparison, the The Library of Congress, Washington, DC, contains 20 million books, which - not counting pictures - are an equivalent of 20 terabytes of information (Internet Archive 2001).
2000 Mar 8
- [M] Intel Co. introduced the Intel Pentium III
processor 1.0 GHz (gigahertz or 1,000 megahertz), the world's highest
performance microprocessor for PCs. The Pentium III processor at 1 GHz
delivers a 15 percent performance gain over the fastest processors on
the market today (Intel 2000).
2000 Apr
- [M] About 1% of all web sites in existence have been created
for mobile phones and handheld computers applications, using the
Wireless Markup Language (WML) (Google 2000).
2000 Apr 27 - [M] The Google search engine releases a beta version
of its WWW indexing technology optimized for wireless phone and
handheld computer users. When a wireless user requests a traditional
html page, Google's innovative technology translates the requested
html document on the fly into WML. This is done by having long html
pages broken down into several smaller, interconnected WML pages to
fit the deck limit of WAP microbrowsers (Google 2000).
2000 May 3
- [M] A new company, SuperLetter.com
Inc. announced that beginning this May, Internet users will be
able to send mail to any physical address in the world from a PC - for
less than the cost of express mail service. The company's motto is
"You Send E-Mail - We Deliver Real-Mail - Around the Globe!"
(Net-Happenings, 4 May 2000).
2000 Jul
- [M] The Internet comprises 93.0 M hosts (in fact, over 93,047,000 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2000).
2000 Aug
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes over 1 bln WWW pages (in fact, 1,060,000,000 documents) and
thus becomes the largest (for the time being) index on the web
(Google Affiliate Program, 18 Aug 2000).
2000 Nov
- [M] The total online population worldwide is estimated to be
407.1 M people (Africa 3.11 M, Asia-Pacific 104.88 M; Europe
113.14 M; Middle East 2.40 M; Canada & USA 167.12 M; Latin
America 16.45 M) (Nua Internet, 2001).
2000 Dec
- [M] 15 billion SMS (short message service) text messages were
sent over GSM networks in December 2000. This represents a fivefold
increase on the corresponding figure a year before. The average amount
of text messages sent per customer per month had grown from 0.4 in
1995 to 35 by the end of 2000. Text messaging is now achieving
critical mass in many international markets. In the UK, the number of
text messages sent per month grew 300 percent in a year to 756 million
by December 2000, while 1.8 billion text messages were sent in Germany
in the same month (The GSM Association, 5 Apr 2001).
2001
- [M] About 80 per cent of Austrian children aged 10 to 19 have
access (from school, home or cyber-cafe) to the Internet, according to
a survey by the Austrian Internet Monitor (AIM). Also, 73 per cent of
the Austrian children have their own mobile phone. Already 54 per cent
of kids (aged 10 to 13) eighty-six per cent of the teens (aged 14 to
19) possess a cell phone (Juva 2001).
2001 - [M] According to the International Data Corporation, some 9.8 billion electronic messages are sent each day (Hafner 2001).
2001 Jan
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes 1.3 bln WWW pages (in fact, over 1,326,920,000 documents). It continues to be
the largest index on the web (Google 22 Jan 2001).
2001 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 109.5 M hosts (in fact, over 109,574,000 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2001).
2001 Jan 15
- [T]Wikipedia, a multilingual, Wiki technology-based, free content encyclopedia project, written and edited collaboratively by anyone with access to the Web site is launched on the Web. (Wikipedia 2007).
2001 Mar
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) keeps on file about 4 bln archived copies of the WWW sites from the mid 1996 onwards. The collection is about 43 terabytes strong (Internet Archive 2001).
2001 Apr
- [M] Internet access from home is available to 167.5 M people in
the US, 24.6 M in Germany, 22.1 M in UK, 16.4 M in Italy, 8.9 M in
Australia, and 1.9 M in Singapore (Nielsen//NetRatings 2001).
2001 May
- [M] Some 461 million people world-wide are connected to the Internet (Carlson 2001).
2001 Jun
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes 1.3 bln WWW pages (in fact, 1,346,966,000 documents). It continues to be
the largest index on the web (Google 1 Jun 2001).
2001 Jun 01
- [M] There are 9.3 million residential customers of broadband
Internet services in North America, which represents 8.2 percent
household penetration. That number comprises 6.4 M people using cable
modem, and 2.9 M using digital subscriber line service. At the same
time 119,000 North Americans were signing up for high-speed Internet
access to their homes per week. As of June 1 there were 7.6 million
residential broadband Internet subscribers in the United States and
1.7 million in Canada, equal to 15 percent penetration of Canadian
households, double the U.S. penetration rate (Luening 2001).
2001 Jul
- [M] The Internet comprises 125.8 M hosts (in fact, over 125,888,000 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2001).
2001 Jul
- [M] 63 percent of U.S. households have computers, and "nearly all of them" have Internet access (Carlson 2001).
2001 Oct
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) keeps on file about 10 bln archived copies of the WWW sites from the mid 1996 onwards. The collection is about 100 terabytes strong (Internet Archive 2001).
2001 Oct 24
- [T] Brewster Kahle and his Internet Archive (www.archive.org) unveil in San Francisco, CA, "The WayBack Machine", a search engine providing access to all archived copies of the WWW sites from the mid 1996 onwards (Internet Archive 2001).
2001 Nov
- [M] America Online (AOL) passes the 32 million subscriber mark (Carlson 2002).
2001 Dec
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes 1.6 bln WWW pages (in fact, over 1,610,476,000 documents). It continues to be
the largest index on the web (Google 1 Dec 2001).
2001 Dec
- [M] Wikipedia (a Wiki-based online encyclopedia project) has over 20,000 articles in 18 languages. Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity since its inception in Jan 2001 (Wikipedia 2007).
2002 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 147.3 M hosts (in fact, over 147,345,000 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2002).
2002 Jan
- [M] The WWW comprises 36.6 M servers (in fact, 36,689,000 servers) (Zakon 2002).
2002 Feb
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes 2.0 bln WWW pages (in fact, 2,073,418,204 documents). Google search engine
continues to be the largest index on the web (Google 23 Feb 2002).
2002 May
- [M] There are over 222,000 LISTSERV lists (L-Soft International 2002); 100,000 e-mail newsletters emanating from 70,000 individual publishers
(Topica Email Publisher 2002); and over 350,000 USENET groups (Google 2002).
2002 Jul
- [M] The Internet comprises 162.1 M hosts (in fact, over162,128,000 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2002).
2002 Aug
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes 2.4 bln WWW pages (in fact, 2,469,940,685 documents). Google search engine
is powered by the world's largest commercial Linux cluster (more than 10,000 servers).
It continues to be the largest index on the web (Google 13 Aug 2002).
2002 Sep
- [M] The total online population worldwide is estimated to be
605.60 M people (Africa 6.31 M, Asia-Pacific 187.24 M; Europe
190.91 M; Middle East 5.12 M; Canada & USA 182.67 M; Latin
America 33.35 M) (Nua Internet, 2005).
2002 Sep 2
- [M] Internet2 now has 200 university, 60 corporate, and 40 affiliate members (Zakon 2003).
2002 Dec
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes 3.0 bln WWW pages (in fact, 3,083,324,652 documents).
It continues to be the largest index on the web (Google 17 Dec 2002).
2002 Dec
- [M] The WWW gets consolidated. The number of servers world-wide drops from
the all high of 38,807,788 in June 2002 to 35,543,105 in December 2002 (Zakon 2003).
2002 Dec
- [M] Wikipedia (a Wiki-based online encyclopedia project) is published in 26 languages. Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity since its inception in Jan 2001 (Wikipedia 2007).
2003 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 171.6 M hosts (in fact, over 171,638,000 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2003).
Jan 7
- [M] The first official Swiss online election takes place in Anières, Genève canton (Zakon 2003).
2003 Jun
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises from
38,807,788 in June 2002 to 40,936,076 in June 2002 (Zakon 2004).
2003 Jun
- [M] The Google search
engine indexes 3.0 bln WWW pages (in fact, 3,083,324,652 documents, i.e. the number of pages which have been already indexed in Dec 2002). Google search engine
continues to be the largest index on the web (Google 30 Jun 2003).
2003 Sep
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) keeps on file about 11 bln archived copies of the WWW pages from the mid 1996 onwards (Internet Archive 2003).
2003 Dec
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
45,980,112 in December 2003 (Zakon 2004).
2003 Dec
- [M] Wikipedia (a Wiki-based online encyclopedia project) is published in 46 languages. Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity since its inception in Jan 2001 (Wikipedia 2007).
2004 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 233.1 M hosts (in fact, 233,101,481 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2004).
2004 Jan
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes 3.3 bln WWW pages (in fact, 3,307,998,701 documents). Google search engine
continues to be the largest index on the web (Google 22 Jan 2004).
2004 Jul
- [M] The Internet comprises 285.1 M hosts (in fact, 285,139,107 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2004).
2004 Oct
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes 4.2 bln WWW pages (in fact, 4,285,199,774 documents). Google search engine
continues to be the largest index on the web (Google 30 Oct 2004).
2004 Dec
- [M] The Google search
engine now indexes 8.0 bln WWW pages (in fact, 8,058,044,651 documents). Google search engine
continues to be the largest index on the web (Google 29 Dec 2004).
2004 Dec
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
56,923,737 in December 2004 (Zakon 2005).
2004 Dec
- [M] Wikipedia (a Wiki-based online encyclopedia project) is published in 161 languages. Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity since its inception in Jan 2001 (Wikipedia 2007).
2005 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 317.6 M hosts (in fact, 317,646,084 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2005).
2005 Apr 23
- [C] The first ever, 18-second video clip recorded by YouTube founder Jawed Karim, at the San Diego Zoo is uploaded to YouTube (www.youtube.com) (an online environment for sharing videos was launched 15 Feb 2005 by the site's three founders, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim) (Parfeni 2010).
2005 Jun
- [M] The Google search
engine indexes 8.0 bln WWW pages (in fact, 8,058,044,651 documents, i.e. the number of pages which have been already indexed in Dec 2004). Google search engine
continues to be the largest index on the web (Google 10 Jun 2005).
2005 Jun
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
64,808,485 in June 2005 (Zakon 2005).
2005 Jul
- [M] The Internet comprises 353.3 M hosts (in fact, 353,284,187 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2005).
2005 Sep
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) keeps on file about 40 bln archived copies of the WWW pages from the mid 1996 onwards (Internet Archive 2005).
2006 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 394.9 M hosts (in fact, 394,991,609 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2006).
2006 Jun
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) keeps on file about 55 bln archived copies of the WWW pages from the mid 1996 onwards (Internet Archive 2006).
2006 Jun
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
85,541,228 in June 2006 (Zakon 2006).
2006 Jul
- [M] The Internet comprises 439.3 M hosts (in fact, 439,286,364 hosts) (Zakon 2006).
2006 Jul
- [M] YouTube (www.youtube.com) has on it approx. 65,000 videos (Parfeni 2010).
2006 Nov
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
101,435,253 in Nov 2006 (Zakon 2006).
2006 Dec
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) keeps on file about 85 bln archived copies of the WWW pages from the mid 1996 onwards (Internet Archive 2006).
2006 Dec
- [M] Wikipedia (a Wiki-based online encyclopedia project) has over six million articles in 250 languages including 1.6 million in the English-language edition. Wikipedia has steadily risen in popularity since its inception in Jan 2001 and currently ranks among the twelve most-visited websites worldwide (Wikipedia 2007).
2007 Jan
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
106,875,138 in Jan 2007 (Netcraft 2007).
2007 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 433.2 M hosts (in fact, 433,193,199 hosts), i.e. nearly the same number as it did in Jul 2006 (Internet Software Consortium 2007).
2007 Jul
- [M] The Internet comprises 489.7 M hosts (in fact, 489,774,269 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2007).
2007 Jul
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
125,626,329 in Jul 2007 (Netcraft 2007).
2007 Sep
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) keeps on file about 85 bln archived copies of the WWW pages from the mid 1996 onwards (Internet Archive 2007).
2008 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 541.7 M hosts (in fact, 541,677,360 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2008).
2008 Jan
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
155,583,825 in Jan 2008 (Netcraft 2008).
2008 Mar
- [M] Some 1,407 million people world-wide are connected to the Internet (Fact Monster 2008).
2008 Jun
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) keeps on file about 85 bln archived copies of the WWW pages from the mid 1996 onwards (Internet Archive 2008).
2008 Jul
- [M] The Internet comprises 570.9 M hosts (in fact, 570,937,778 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2008).
2008 Jul
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
175,480,931 in Jul 2008 (Netcraft 2008).
2009 Jan
- [M] The Internet comprises 625.2 M hosts (in fact, 625,226,456 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2009).
2009 Jan
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
185,497,213 in Jan 2009 (Netcraft 2009).
2009 Jul
- [M] The Internet comprises 681.0 M hosts (in fact, 681,064,561 hosts) (Internet Software Consortium 2009).
2009 Jul
- [M] The WWW continues to expand. The number of servers world-wide rises to
239,611,111 in Jul 2009 (Netcraft 2009).
2009 Sep
- [M] Some 1,733 million people world-wide are connected to the Internet (Internet World Statistics News and Population Stats 2009).
2009 Oct
- [M] YouTube (www.youtube.com) serves 1 billion videos per day (Parfeni 2009).
2009 Dec
- [M] The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) continues to dititize and archive copies of books. In December 2009 its holdings included approx. 60,000 digitized books from the Library of Congress, and approx. 70,000 digitized books from the Cornell Libraries. (Internet Archive 2009, http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id=283352 and http://www.archive.org/iathreads/post-view.php?id=283343).
Maintainer: Dr T. Matthew Ciolek (tmciolek@ciolek.com)
Copyright (c) 2000-2007 by T. Matthew Ciolek. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted for use of this document in whole or in part for
non-commercial purposes as long as this Copyright notice and a link to
this document, at the archive listed at the end, is included. A copy
of the material the "Milestones" appear in is requested. For commercial
uses, please contact the author first.
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