Wishing you a happy Internet Day
On October 29 each year, we celebrate the most important invention in human history. Learn about how it all started and where it’s going.
29th October marks the official Internet Day. This is an established holiday now, even boasting its own website. It might seem silly to have a marked holiday for an inanimate concept such as the internet, but the purpose of the day is to celebrate the pioneers and geniuses that contributed to the building of the modern world wide web. In this blog post, we’ll briefly discuss the history of the internet and how Internet Day came to be celebrated.
The internet – where did it all come from?
The internet is such a vast, stretching entity that it almost seems likely it came about from some sort of big bang phenomenon. This isn’t quite true – but it’s not too far from the truth either! The very first internet transmission happened way back in 1969, just a few months after the moon landings. Leonard Kleinrock began transmitting the message ‘login’ to a computer lab at Stanford via an internet connection, and managed the first two letters before the entire system crashed!
Pioneers such as Kleinrock would continue to work on the internet for many years, but it wasn’t until the early 1990s when the world wide web was truly born. The primary use at this time for the internet was mainly through sales systems, much as online shopping and ecommerce continues to be a dominant use for the world wide web today.
With the release of Windows 95 came far wider internet use in homes across the world. At that time, most people still found the internet rather daunting, so although over half of the United States had access to a computer in their home there still wasn’t a massive amount of internet usage.
It’s in the lead up to 2008 that our big bang comparison really comes into its own. Between the years of 1996 and 2008, a number of sites online went from 100,000 to over 162 million. After this point, a number of new websites being launched would continue to increase at an unprecedented rate. For businesses wanting to make their mark online, there’s more opportunity than ever before – but the internet’s popularity also means it’s harder than ever to get noticed.
Why do we celebrate Internet Day?
The official Internet Day website states that the purpose of Internet Day is to celebrate ‘the people who helped build the internet, while also giving us a moment to reflect on all the ways that it has changed our lives forever.’ 29th October marks the anniversary each year of the first internet transmission by Leonard Kleinrock.
In the 21st century, we certainly have a lot to thank the internet for. Here at iFactory, we’re grateful because it has allowed us to build a business that we are truly passionate about. We’ve been providing Brisbane web development services to satisfied clients since 2004, helping companies to create online content that they can be truly proud of. Now we’ve entered the digital age, there’s no excuse for poor digital content or website design in Brisbane. Why not contact us today to find out more about our digital and creative services and revolutionise your company’s online presence this Internet Day.
