abestic9

With many open standards approaching the majority of the World Wide Web (desktop and mobile users alike) there are a few things I would like to look back on.

I have compiled a timeline of the events that changed the technology of the web into what it has become today. I’m hoping that by putting this out there, more people will understand just how far we’ve come, and how quickly the industry can change.

1991
Apple releases QuickTime alongside their proprietary video codec known then as “Road Pizza”. The initial reception was incredible. Microsoft proceeded to copy the QuickTime technology and release it a year later, in 1992, as “Video for Windows”.

1994
The HTML Working Group is established to look over the development and implementation of the HTML standard.

1995 – 1996
Flash (then known as FutureSplash Animator – note the name) was originally created alongside a product (SmartSketch) that was designed to compete with Adobe and Macromedia (I’m not making this up) products Illustrator and FreeHand. When approaching software companies to purchase the technology, Adobe declined “Flash” where Macromedia decided to purchase it.

1998-2001
Companies flood the Internet with their presence. Individuals tout ideas to investors and receive billions of dollars in start-up capitals. Ideas begin to flood the web about current and future technologies.

2002
The dot-com bubble bursts and many companies find themselves filing bankruptcy. The development of Internet technologies slows down for the next few years – many large companies are too reluctant to buy into new ideas at this stage. The importance of this is about not rowing an industry quicker than it can develop.

2005
Adobe acquires Macromedia and the Flash technology, which is at that time present on about 90% of desktop web browsers.

Many news and content-intense websites begin to implement RSS, a technology which becomes hugely popular with web browsers and readers supporting the standard which was initially developed in 1999.

2006
Social and media websites become hugely popular on the Internet. Millions upon millions of people have registered accounts on websites such as MySpace, YouTube and many other aggregate websites.

API-based web formats (JSON, XML, REST) begin to further the semantic architecture envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee.

2008
Sun Microsystems, maker of hardware and software products designed for web and storage platforms, acquires the MySQL database engine and its team – a hugely popular database often used in large and small websites alike.

Sun, along with MySQL, would later be purchased by Oracle.

2008-2009
HTML5 and CSS3 become primitively supported in browsers such as Google Chrome and Safari, both based on the WebKit rendering engine. Together with JavaScript, these technologies enable an incredibly rich web platform which rivals many desktop applications.

These technologies are beginning to push the proprietary Flash technology away from its almost-monopoly of animation, UI elements and videos in websites. This has become one of the biggest evolutions in the history of the World Wide Web, and it will continue to make the browser a popular application among users.

Additional note: I would also like to add your well known websites such as Google, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to the honorable mentions. Without these websites, regardless of your opinion of them, the web wouldn’t be growing as fast as it is today.