Brief History of the Internet and Web Browsers

The Internet has been a tool that the majority of the world has been accustomed to on a regular basis since the mid-90s. But many people do not know that the Internet’s roots begin all the way back in the 60s! DARPA was the original creator and they used the ARPAnet which was the early predecessor to the internet. The main takeaway when thinking of the internet is that it is an extensive network of additional networks. Essentially it is a global interconnection of network devices and many have redundant paths to the various “corners” of the world that the Internet exists.

My personal knowledge of the Internet stems back to the mid-90s as a child when playing early video games such as Diablo, Starcraft, and other titles online. They used early chat rooms and features but many people were not using the Internet for more than e-mail, document sharing, and education resources at this time. The Internet’s success would not have been near as sustained without the use and development of Web Browsers.

Although browsers were not popular in my early days of the Internet they did exist as early as 1990 through WorldWideWeb which was the first ever browser. It was later renamed to Nexus but did not garner mainstream success as later browsers would. Internet Explorer as well as Netscape were the first early successful web browsers and would be widely used from their inception in 1995 and onwards. Netscape eventually fell in popularity but Internet Explorer remains as one of the most popular browsers in the world. Through the 2000s browsers such as the Opera project, Apple’s Safari, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox would rise in popularity. Firefox and Google Chrome are the speedier and more secure browsers in use today. Microsoft has also replaced Internet Explorer with Microsoft Edge to try and bring some customers back from Google but as of the release of the Windows 10 they have yet to see a resurgence in the leading space of the browser market.

Browsers allow us to find different web pages throughout the internet which is resourceful in that we can use keywords to find pages related to what we are searching. This has been especially useful in education as students can now find resources for their assignments and homework to develop more quality work and gain knowledge much faster than before the Internet’s inception.

References:

https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet/

https://crossbrowsertesting.com/blog/test-automation/history-of-web-browsers/

Methods of Communication

The Internet has also revolutionized the way we communicate with one another through e-mail, blogs, social networks, and more recently podcasts and streaming media. E-mail along with Instant Messaging through chat rooms was the early form of communication on the Internet that interconnected people around the world. These methods broadened extensively with the creation of social media by platforms such as MySpace and Facebook in the mid-2000s.

Social Media has completely changed how people communicate with one another as well as their families. Modern players in Social Media such as Twitter use brief status messages to allow someone’s followers and friends to interact with them via their post. This helped stem other Social Media that is picture based such as Instagram and Snapchat. Time constraints have moved the younger generations away from reading long-form social media posts and blogs and into just pictures accompanied by a small amount of text. This could be because humans are typically visual learners and react more so to visual stimulation than they do by reading. Time Constraints have also pushed the younger generation to seek new methods of learning and some great avenues that were developed were Podcasting platforms such as Soundcloud and Stitcher to streaming video platforms such as YouTube and Vimeo.

Podcasts and Webcasts have been around since the creation of the iPod but only recently gained popularity around 2013. Early popular podcasting was adopted in 2005 by the Bush Administration as he would Podcast his weekly address. Webcasts and streaming media came with the podcasting territory as well as many wanted to watch a show as well as have the ability to listen to it. YouTube improved the video streaming experience and remains at the forefront of the online video streaming communication marketplace. Streaming media has opened the gates for more visual learning on the internet and allows those who may not be as literate the opportunity to be educated through visual learning.

The various methods of communication on the internet have greatly enhanced society as there are more ways than ever to reach one another. The ability to learn something in five minutes has enhanced the productivity and even given a sort of knowledge base to the upcoming generations that previous generations did not have although Baby Boomers and Generation X are quickly learning social media as well as the advantages of streaming media to help them learn as well. The future looks bright for communication and it will continue this way for the foreseeable future through new technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

References:

https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/29/how-internet-changed-the-way-we-communicate/

https://internationalpodcastday.com/podcasting-history/

E-Commerce and M-Commerce

E-Commerce or Electronic Commerce is the process of buying goods and services online from an online retailer on the Internet. The dot-com collapse in the early 2000s affected e-commerce significantly as many companies went under but it built back up throughout the 2000s as brick and mortar companies realized there was a great way to market their products and sell more volume online to more locations. Amazon.com comes to mind when many of think of e-commerce as they are now a giant but that company was founded by Jeff Bezos all the way back in 1994. Amazon really revolutionized how e-commerce is done with their Prime 2 Day Shipping service which allowed them to send goods much quicker through their warehousing system to allow for free two day deliveries to Prime members.

Dell is another major player in online computer sales and actually was the first company to record one million dollars in online sales. They have long been at the forefront of the Fortune 500 and have revolutionized the way a person can buy a computer and have it shipped directly to their door. They were allowing custom built computers to be shipped back in 1997 and were doing so long before NewEgg and other tech sales companies began to build computers.

M-Commerce or Mobile Commerce is relatively new and gained popularity around 2015. Although it has been around much longer since the inception of smartphones it has not been thoroughly optimized until recently for expanded mobile use. The field is relatively new but there are already some old players in the market including Apple, PayPal, Visa, and Amazon. These companies essentially offer a pay-through-them option through several retailers on mobile devices. Typically M-Commerce can allow for one-touch checkout making purchasing products online much quicker and truly brings a mobile experience to the marketplace.

M-Commerce and E-Commerce will continually gain in popularity and many forecasts that they will do nothing but grow in the coming years. The ability to purchase products anywhere and have secure protocols handling the purchase allows one to shop on the go and have peace of mind that their identity is safe. M-Commerce vendors are continually optimizing and enhancing security and this will help drive M-Commerce to the forefront of shopping for the years to come.

References:

https://www.ecommerce-land.com/history_ecommerce.html

https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/mobile-commerce/#common-pitfalls-of-mobile-commerce