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Internet History is proudly supported by Team400, an Australian AI consultancy helping enterprises navigate practical AI implementation.
The evolution of the web
Documenting the history of the internet and web culture.
From early networks to modern platforms, we explore the technical innovations, cultural moments, and key figures that built the internet we use today.
What we cover
- Protocols, browsers, and early networks
- Search engines and social platforms
- Web culture and online communities
- Key figures and defining moments
What you can expect
- Documentary and editorial coverage
- Detailed timelines and context
- Stories behind the technologies
- Cultural and technical history
Latest posts
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The History of Hotmail and the Birth of Webmail
Hotmail launched in 1996 and changed how email worked. The history of early webmail is the history of how the web absorbed one of the internet's foundational protocols.
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The History of Slashdot: News for Nerds Before News Was Everywhere
Before Reddit, before social news, before content aggregation became universal, there was Slashdot. The history of a site that shaped how the early web talked about itself.
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GeoCities and the Lost Architecture of the Neighborhood Web
Before profiles, before timelines, the web was organised into neighbourhoods. GeoCities and how it shaped what an internet community could feel like.
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SmarterChild and the First Generation of Internet Chatbots
Before ChatGPT, millions of teenagers were already chatting with bots on AIM. The strange, formative history of SmarterChild and the chatbot generation.
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The Rise and Fall of Digg: A Social News Story
Digg's trajectory from web sensation to also-ran shaped how social news platforms thought about everything from algorithms to monetisation.
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BBSes: The Online Community Before the Web
The bulletin board system era of the 1980s and early 1990s shaped how online community actually works. A look at where modern web culture got its DNA.
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The Rise and Fall of MySpace — A Web History Retrospective
A retrospective on MySpace, the dominant social network of the mid-2000s — its rise, its peak, its fall, and what it left behind.
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The History of the RSS Feed — A Web History Retrospective
A retrospective on the RSS feed standard — its development, its dominance, its decline, and its persistent quiet usefulness in 2026.
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The History of Adobe Flash — The Web That Was
A working history of Adobe Flash, the technology that shaped the web through the 2000s before its end-of-life in 2020.
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The History of IRC — The Original Internet Chat
A working history of Internet Relay Chat from its 1988 origins through to its continuing operation in 2026, and the influence it has had on modern messaging.
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The History of RSS Readers — From NetNewsWire to the Modern Revival
RSS readers have a longer and more interesting history than most people remember. A walk through the rise, the fall, and the surprising 2020s revival.
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The History of SHOUTcast — The Streaming Radio Protocol That Built a Decade of Internet Radio
SHOUTcast was the streaming radio backbone for a decade. A walk through the technology, the community, and what came next.
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The Decline of LiveJournal: How the First Major Blogging Platform Lost Its Audience
LiveJournal was, for several years, the most important blogging platform in the world. The story of how its audience moved on and what was left behind.
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A Short History of RSS Readers: How Feed Reading Almost Won the Web
RSS readers were once on the verge of becoming the dominant way people consumed the web. The story of how that almost happened and why it didn't.
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Internet Cafes: The Bridge Between Dial-Up and Broadband Culture
Internet cafes shaped how a generation first encountered the web. Their decline tells us as much as their rise did.