Editing History of the Internet (section)

==2004–present: Web 2.0, global ubiquity, social media==
{{Main|Web 2.0|History of the World Wide Web#Web 2.0}}

The rapid technical advances that would propel the Internet into its place as a social system, which has completely transformed the way humans interact with each other, took place during a relatively short period from around 2005 to 2010, coinciding with the point in time in which [[Internet of things|IoT]] devices surpassed the number of humans alive at some point in the late 2000s. They included:
* The call to "[[Web 2.0]]" in 2004 (first suggested in 1999).
* Accelerating adoption and commoditization among households of, and familiarity with, the necessary hardware (such as computers).
* Accelerating storage technology and data access speeds – [[hard drive]]s emerged, took over from far smaller, slower [[floppy disc]]s, and grew from [[megabyte]]s to [[gigabyte]]s (and by around 2010, [[terabyte]]s), [[Random-access memory|RAM]] from hundreds of [[kilobyte]]s to gigabytes as typical amounts on a system, and [[Ethernet]], the enabling technology for TCP/IP, moved from common speeds of kilobits to tens of megabits per second, to gigabits per second.
* High speed Internet and wider coverage of data connections, at lower prices, allowing larger traffic rates, more reliable simpler traffic, and traffic from more locations.
* The public's accelerating perception of the potential of computers to create new means and approaches to communication, the emergence of social media and websites such as [[Twitter]] and [[Facebook]] to their later prominence, and global collaborations such as [[Wikipedia]] (which existed before but gained prominence as a result).
* The mobile device revolution, particularly with smartphones and tablet computers becoming widespread, which began to provide easy access to the Internet to much of human society of all ages, in their daily lives, and allowed them to share, discuss, and continually update, inquire, and respond.
* [[Non-volatile RAM]] rapidly grew in size and reliability, and decreased in price, becoming a commodity capable of enabling high levels of computing activity on these small handheld devices as well as [[solid-state drive]]s (SSD).
* An emphasis on power efficient processor and device design, rather than purely high processing power; one of the beneficiaries of this was [[Arm (company)|Arm]], a British company which had focused since the 1980s on powerful but low cost simple microprocessors. The [[ARM architecture family]] rapidly gained dominance in the market for mobile and embedded devices.

=== Web 2.0 ===
The term "Web 2.0" describes [[website]]s that emphasize [[user-generated content]] (including user-to-user interaction), [[usability]], and [[Web API|interoperability]]. It first appeared in a January 1999 article called "Fragmented Future" written by [[Darcy DiNucci]], a consultant on [[information architecture|electronic information design]], where she wrote:<ref name="graham">{{cite web|url=http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html |title=Web 2.0 |first=Paul|last=Graham |author-link=Paul Graham (computer programmer) |date=November 2005 |access-date=2006-08-02 |quote=I first heard the phrase 'Web 2.0' in the name of the Web 2.0 conference in 2004.}}</ref><ref name="oreilly">{{cite web|url=http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html |title=What Is Web 2.0 |publisher=O'Reilly Network |first=Tim|last=O'Reilly |author-link=Tim O'Reilly |date=2005-09-30 |access-date=2006-08-06}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Strickland |first=Jonathan |url=http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-20.htm |title=How Web 2.0 Works |website=computer.howstuffworks.com |date=2007-12-28 |access-date=2015-02-28}}</ref><ref name="DiNucci">{{cite journal
|last=DiNucci |first=Darcy
|year=1999
|title=Fragmented Future
|journal=Print
|volume=53
|issue=4
|page=32
|url=http://darcyd.com/fragmented_future.pdf
}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|The Web we know now, which loads into a browser window in essentially static screenfuls, is only an embryo of the Web to come. The first glimmerings of Web 2.0 are beginning to appear, and we are just starting to see how that embryo might develop. The Web will be understood not as screenfuls of text and graphics but as a transport mechanism, the ether through which interactivity happens. It will [...] appear on your computer screen, [...] on your TV set [...] your car dashboard [...] your cell phone [...] hand-held game machines [...] maybe even your microwave oven.}}

The term resurfaced during 2002–2004,<ref>{{cite web | title=RSS: INJAN (It's not just about news) | website=Kingsley Idehen's Blog | date=21 Aug 2003| url=http://www.openlinksw.com:80/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/241 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091128090508/http://www.openlinksw.com:80/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/241 | archive-date=28 November 2009 | url-status=unfit}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Jeff Bezos Comments about Web Services | website=Kingsley Idehen's Blog | date=25 Sep 2003 | url=http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/373 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307150619/http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/373 | archive-date=7 March 2012 | url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Knorr, Eric 2003">{{cite magazine |last=Knorr |first=Eric |title=The year of Web services |magazine=CIO |date=15 December 2003| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1QwAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA90 | page=90}}</ref><ref name="jrobb.mindplex.org">{{cite web |title=Web 2.0 | website=John Robb's Weblog | date=16 August 2003 | url=http://jrobb.mindplex.org:80/2003/08/16.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030918142346/http://jrobb.mindplex.org:80/2003/08/16.html | archive-date=18 September 2003 | url-status=unfit}}</ref> and gained prominence in late 2004 following presentations by [[Tim O'Reilly]] and Dale Dougherty at the first [[Web 2.0 Summit|Web 2.0 Conference]]. In their opening remarks, [[John Battelle]] and Tim O'Reilly outlined their definition of the "Web as Platform", where software applications are built upon the Web as opposed to upon the desktop. The unique aspect of this migration, they argued, is that "customers are building your business for you".<ref name="O'Reilly, Tim 2004">O'Reilly, Tim, and John Battelle. 2004. Opening Welcome: State of the Internet Industry. In San Francisco, California, October 5.</ref>{{primary inline|reason=A presentation is not per se [[WP:V|verifiable]]. Cite a report, transcript or recording of it instead|date=February 2025}} They argued that the activities of users generating content (in the form of ideas, text, videos, or pictures) could be "harnessed" to create value.

"Web 2.0" does not refer to an update to any technical specification, but rather to cumulative changes in the way Web pages are made and used. "Web 2.0" describes an approach, in which sites focus substantially upon allowing users to interact and collaborate with each other in a [[social media]] dialogue as creators of [[user-generated content]] in a [[virtual community]], in contrast to Web sites where people are limited to the passive viewing of [[Content (media and publishing)|content]]. Examples of Web 2.0 include [[social networking service]]s, [[blog]]s, [[wiki]]s, [[Folksonomy|folksonomies]], [[video sharing]] sites, [[Web service|hosted services]], [[Web application]]s, and [[Mashup (web application hybrid)|mashups]].<ref>{{cite web | last=O'Reilly | first=Tim | title=Web 2.0: Compact Definition? | website=O'Reilly Radar | date=1 October 2005 | url=http://radar.oreilly.com/2005/10/web-20-compact-definition.html}}</ref> [[Terry Flew]], in his 3rd edition of ''New Media'', described what he believed to characterize the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0:

{{quote|[The] move from personal websites to blogs and blog site aggregation, from publishing to participation, from web content as the outcome of large up-front investment to an ongoing and interactive process, and from content management systems to links based on tagging (folksonomy).<ref>{{Cite book
  |title=New Media: An Introduction
  |last=Flew  |first=Terry
  |year=2008
  |edition=3rd
  |publisher=Oxford University Press  |location=Melbourne
  |page=19
| isbn=978-0-19-555149-5
}}</ref>}}

This era saw several household names gain prominence through their community-oriented operation – [[YouTube]], Twitter, Facebook, [[Reddit]] and Wikipedia being some examples.

=== Telephone networks convert to VoIP ===
Telephone systems have been slowly adopting [[voice over IP]] since 2003. Early experiments proved that voice can be converted to digital packets and sent over the Internet. The packets are collected and converted back to analog voice.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Purton |first=Peter |date=October 11, 1999 |title=Rapid Development of the Net Forces BT to Adjust Its Plans |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB939641595931044725 |work=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Young |first=Shawn |date=May 27, 2003 |title=Sprint Converts Local Network To 'Packet Switched' Technology |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB105399586254936300 |work=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Packet Softswitches – The Next Generation |url=https://telephoneworld.org/telephone-switching-systems/packet-softswitches-the-next-generation/ |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=telephoneworld.org}}</ref>

===The mobile revolution===
{{Main|History of mobile phones|Mobile web|Responsive web design}}

The process of change that generally coincided with Web 2.0 was itself greatly accelerated and transformed only a short time later by the increasing growth in mobile devices. This mobile revolution meant that computers in the form of smartphones became something many people used, took with them everywhere, communicated with, used for photographs and videos they instantly shared or to shop or seek information "on the move" – and used socially, as opposed to items on a desk at home or just used for work.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

Location-based services, services using location and other sensor information, and [[crowdsourcing]] (frequently but not always location based), became common, with posts tagged by location, or websites and services becoming location aware. Mobile-targeted websites (such as "m.example.com"<!--Use this top-level domain rather than any other. It is specifically reserved for use in examples.-->) became common, designed especially for the new devices used. [[Netbook]]s, [[ultrabook]]s, widespread [[4G]] and [[Wi-Fi]], and mobile chips capable or running at nearly the power of desktops from not many years before on far lower power usage, became enablers of this stage of Internet development, and the term "[[App (computing)|App]]" (short for "Application program" or "Program") became popularized,<!--Don't say "created" or the like - it existed long before Web 2.0--> as did the "[[App store]]".

This "mobile revolution" has allowed for people to have a nearly unlimited amount of information at all times. With the ability to access the internet from cell phones came a change in the way media was consumed. Media consumption statistics show that over half of media consumption between those aged 18 and 34 were using a smartphone.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2020-02-12|title=Media consumption on mobile skyrockets in the US|url=https://www.mobileworldlive.com/featured-content/apps-home-banner/media-consumption-on-mobile-skyrockets-in-the-us|access-date=2020-11-01|website=Mobile World Live|language=en-GB|last1=Boyadzhieva |first1=Yanitsa }}</ref>

===Networking in outer space===
{{Main|Interplanetary Internet}}
The first Internet link into [[low Earth orbit]] was established on January 22, 2010, when astronaut [[Timothy Creamer|T. J. Creamer]] posted the first unassisted update to his Twitter account from the [[International Space Station]], marking the extension of the Internet into space.<ref>{{cite tweet |first=T. J. |last=Creamer |user=Astro_TJ |number=8062317551 |title=Hello Twitterverse! We r now LIVE tweeting from the International Space Station -- the 1st live tweet from Space! :) More soon, send your ?s |date=2010-01-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131108225641/https://twitter.com/Astro_TJ/status/8062317551 |archive-date=November 8, 2013 }}</ref> (Astronauts at the ISS had used email and Twitter before, but these messages had been relayed to the ground through a NASA data link before being posted by a human proxy.) This personal Web access, which NASA calls the Crew Support LAN, uses the space station's high-speed [[Ku band]] microwave link. To surf the Web, astronauts can use a station laptop computer to control a desktop computer on Earth, and they can talk to their families and friends on Earth using [[Voice over IP]] equipment.<ref>{{cite web | title=NASA Extends the World Wide Web Out Into Space | publisher=NASA | date=24 January 2010 | url=http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/jan/HQ_M10-011_Hawaii221169.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101213014423/http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2010/jan/HQ_M10-011_Hawaii221169.html | archive-date=13 December 2010 | url-status=unfit | id=NASA media advisory M10-012}}</ref>

Communication with spacecraft beyond Earth orbit has traditionally been over point-to-point links through the [[Deep Space Network]]. Each such data link must be manually scheduled and configured. In the late 1990s NASA and Google began working on a new network protocol, [[delay-tolerant networking]] (DTN), which automates this process, allows networking of spaceborne transmission nodes, and takes the fact into account that spacecraft can temporarily lose contact because they move behind the Moon or planets, or because [[space weather]] disrupts the connection. Under such conditions, DTN retransmits data packages instead of dropping them, as the standard TCP/IP Internet Protocol does. NASA conducted the first field test of what it calls the "deep space internet" in November 2008.<ref>{{cite web | title=NASA Successfully Tests First Deep Space Internet | website=nasa.gov | date=19 November 2008 | url=http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/nov/HQ_08-298_Deep_space_internet.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124220808/http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/nov/HQ_08-298_Deep_space_internet.html | archive-date=24 November 2010 | url-status=unfit | id=NASA media advisory 08-298}}</ref> Testing of DTN-based communications between the International Space Station and Earth (now termed disruption-tolerant networking) has been ongoing since March 2009, and was scheduled to continue until March 2014.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/DTN.html |title=Disruption Tolerant Networking for Space Operations (DTN). July 31, 2012 |access-date=August 26, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120729092707/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/DTN.html |archive-date=July 29, 2012  }}</ref>{{update-inline|date=January 2025}}

This network technology is supposed to ultimately enable missions that involve multiple spacecraft where reliable inter-vessel communication might take precedence over vessel-to-Earth downlinks. According to a February 2011 statement by Google's [[Vint Cerf]], the so-called "bundle protocols" have been uploaded to NASA's [[EPOXI]] mission spacecraft (which is in orbit around the Sun) and communication with Earth has been tested at a distance of approximately 80 light seconds.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/021811-cerf-interplanetary-internet.html |title=Cerf: 2011 will be proving point for 'InterPlanetary Internet' |work=Network World interview with Vint Cerf |date=February 18, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120524165936/http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/021811-cerf-interplanetary-internet.html |archive-date=May 24, 2012  |access-date=April 23, 2012 }}</ref>