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A capsule history of online news and information
systems
by David Carlson
© 1999-2009 All Rights Reserved
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Select a decade |
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| 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s |
1980-85
| 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
| Year | U.K. | U.S. & Canada | Europe | Asia/Other |
| 1980 | Prestel is now within a local phone call for 62 percent of the British population. | Miami: Viewtron, the videotex service created by Knight-Ridder and AT&T, begins "concept trials" near Miami. | France: Teletel, the videotex system now called Minitel, is publicly demonstrated. | China begins development of an electronic phone book called CtdE, or Chinese Telephone Directory Enquiry. |
| 1980 con't |
The Brighton Argus, owned by Westminster Press, launches a Prestel service called Viewpress. | The Apple III is introduced with a 2-MHz Motorola 6502A processor and a price tag of $4,500 to $8,000, depending on configuration. Meanwhile, IBM begins assembling a team to design the PC. It contacts Microsoft and Digital Research about creating an operating system. Digital Research declines. | Netherlands: Krantel, a consortium of Dutch newspaper publishers, is formed in May to explore videotex. Its service is presented on Viditel. Meanwhile, in April, teletext service begins. | |
| 1980 con't |
April 25: The Associated Press Videotex Wire begins transmission. | June: Germany's first public trials of Bildschirmtext involve 6,000 terminals in Dusseldorf and Berlin. Three newspapers are among the IPs. | The VCR is introduced by Matsushita. 40,000 U.S. homes will have one within a year. | |
| 1980 con't |
July: The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio becomes the first newspaper to offer an electronic edition via CompuServe, which now has 3,600 total subscribers. | August: In the Netherlands, Viditel public trials begin. System goes commercial in 1982. Krantel provides about 300 pages per day and gets 14,000 hits a month. | ||
| 1980 con't |
The Source is purchased for $6 million by Reader's Digest. It has fewer than 5,000 subscribers. | "Intelmatique" is incorporated in France to sell its Teletel technology to the rest of the world. | ||
| 1980 con't |
Qube, the first two-way cable TV system, is started by Warner Amex in Columbus, Ohio. It closes in 1984. | Hungary: National videotex service begins test transmissions. | ||
| 1980 con't |
Pac-Man, a successful video game, is released. | |||
| 1981 | Adam Osborne introduces the Osborne 1, a portable computer with 64K of RAM, two floppy drives, and a 5-inch display. Price: $1,795. | |||
| 1981 con't |
An estimated 10,000 Prestel terminals are in use. The service boasts 500 information providers. | The first commercial Ethernet network interface card is marketed by Ungermann-Bass. | ||
| 1981 con't |
Financial Times buys out Extel and continues to operate Fintel on Prestel and Newsbase separately. | Feb. 17: Time, Inc. announces it will develop and test a multi-channel teletext service to be distributed via satellite, the first of its kind. | ||
| 1981 con't |
National Science Foundation backbone goes up to connect U.S. universities to Arpanet. | |||
| 1981 con't |
April: WFLD-TV in Chicago begins teletext transmissions. On Sept. 4, it introduces Nite Owl, a full-channel, late-night service that requires no decoder. | France: La Parisien Libere, a French newspaper, produces its first online edition on Teletel March 26. | ||
| 1981 con't |
June: WETA, a PBS TV station in Washington, D.C., launches a pilot alphageometric videotex service with 40 homes and 10 public terminals. | June: Teletel, the French electronic telephone book, begins wider trials. France orders 300,000 Minitel terminals. | ||
| 1981 con't |
August: IBM introduces the PC. Based on the Intel 8088, it sells 50,000 units in the first eight months. Cost: $1,565 to $6,000. | |||
| 1981 con't |
November: First Bank System of Minneapolis announces a full interactive trial using Teletel technology. Ends in March, 1983. | Austria: Videotex system based on Prestel with improved MUPID terminal is introduced in March. | ||
| 1981 con't |
Chemical Bank begins trials of Pronto, a telebanking service, in 200 New York homes. It goes commercial in late 1983 as part of Covidea. | Japan: Second Captain trial commences in August with 2,000 terminals. | ||
| 1982 | Prestel introduces "gateways" which provide access to outside databases. | Eleven U.S. newspapers begin daily transmission of "electronic versions" via CompuServe, which now has 10,000 subscribers. | France: Major public trial of Teletel begins using 270,000 Minitel terminals distributed free of charge. | Hong Kong: Trials of Viewdata, a videotex system, begin in spring with 500 terminals. |
| 1982 con't |
Ted Nelson, inventor of hypertext, publishes a seminal book called "Literary Machines," describing his Xanadu concept. | |||
| 1982 con't |
Los Angeles: Gateway, the videotex trial conducted by Times-Mirror, operates between March 15 and Dec. 31. | EUnet (European UNIX Network) is created by EUUG to provide email and USENET services. | ||
| 1982 con't |
January: Prestel has attracted 15,000 purchasers or renters of equipment, but readership is estimated at up to 75,000. | Summer: The Danbury (Ct.) News-Times starts TimesView, a teletext service. | January: Viditel in Holland has 4,000 users, 130 IPs and 90,000 pages of information. Krantel now includes 10 Dutch newspapers. | |
| 1982 con't |
Project Grassroots opens in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. | Italy: Videotel, a videotex service, begins testing in the first quarter with 2,000 terminals. | ||
| 1982 con't |
Intel introduces the 6-MHz 80286 chip. | Spain: First trials of Ibertex take place during the Football World Championship with 400 terminals in airports, hotels, train stations, etc., which provide updated information. | ||
| 1982 con't |
INDAX, an interactive cable TV system is tested in Southern California by Cox, a cable and newspaper company. | Austria, Finland, Norway, Spain, Switzerland also have videotex experiments under way. | ||
| 1982 con't |
StarText, the only early newspaper videotex system intended for display on computers, opens in Fort Worth, Texas. | Netherlands: 100,000 teletext TV sets are sold in the year ending in April � and twice the price of regular TVs. | ||
| 1982 con't |
November: Keyfax, a $10 per month teletext service, begins broadcasting on WTBS Atlanta. | France: Another 300,000 Minitel terminals are ordered by the government. | ||
| 1982 con't |
Commodore Computer announces the Commodore 64. It has 64K of RAM, sound and color graphics when hooked to a color TV. Cost: $600. | Spain: First trials of teletext systems take place through RTVE (Radio Televisi�n Espa�ola) with Antiope and UK systems. | ||
| 1983 | Prestel boasts over 200,000 users on 30,000 registered terminals. Its database contains 250,000 pages. | Jan. 3: Time Magazine names no "Man of the Year." Instead, the computer is dubbed "Machine of the Year." | France: The first smart card is introduced for commercial transactions via Minitel. | Japan: Captain is introduced commercially late in the year. Trials now have cost 20 billion yen. |
| 1983 con't |
Prestel begins to woo PC owners with free software. | Midyear: Keycom Electronic Publishing launches Keytran, a videotex service, in Chicago. | Central Paris gets electronic phone book access. About 10,000 Minitel terminals are in use. | |
| 1983 con't |
October 30: Viewtron launches commercially in Miami. | Germany: Deutsch Telekom launches T-Online, its videotex system. | ||
| 1983 con't |
Internet Domain Name System is developed at the University of Wisconsin. | Spain: Online access to 23 online databases is available through various providers. | ||
| 1983 con't |
Nov. 21: After two years of testing, Time, Inc. announces it will not go commercial with Time Teletext and closes it down. | |||
| 1983 con't |
Apple introduces the Lisa. With 1 MB of RAM, a 5 MB hard drive and a 12-inch color monitor, it costs $10,000. | |||
| 1983 con't |
December: The largest U.S. online services are Dow Jones, with 90,000 users, CompuServe, 63,000, and The Source, 36,000 users. | |||
| 1983 con't |
FidoNet, a store and forward network of BBS systems, is developed by Tom Jennings. | |||
| 1983 con't |
ARPAnet begins using TCP/IP. | |||
| 1983 con't |
Microsoft first demonstrates "Interface Manager," later renamed Windows. | |||
| 1984 | Britain has 1.5 million teletext decoders and 42,000 Prestel units in operation. | CBS opens ExtraVision teletext system on various network affiliate stations. | France: Minitel has about 1 million terminals in use. | Japan: JUNET (Japan Unix Network) is established using UUCP. |
| 1984 con't |
January: Apple introduces the Macintosh. Cost: $2,495 with built-in B&W monitor. Within 75 days, 50,000 are sold. | |||
| 1984 con't |
JANET (Joint Academic Network) established in the UK. | March: CompuServe charges 13 cents per minute daytime and 10 cents at night. Dow Jones is $1.20 daytime and 20 cents at night. | ||
| 1984 con't |
IBM introduces the PC-AT, based on the 80286 Intel chip. Fully loaded with graphics, color monitor and 20MB hard disk, it costs $6,700. | Spain: RTVE decides to adopt the British system for teletext, but with 182 characters, so it can give service to the four different languages spoken in Spain. | ||
| 1984 con't |
Nov. 1: Keytran, owned by Centel, Honeywell and Chicago Sun-Times, is renamed Keycom and launches commercial videotex service. | |||
| 1984 con't |
Nov. 16: USA Today launches USA Today Update, a business news summary service eventually available on Trintex, Minitel, GEnie, The Source, Datatimes and others. | Spain: Online access to 52 databases is available through various providers. | ||
| 1984 con't |
Hewlett-Packard unveils the first Laserjet, a instant business hit at $3,600. | |||
| 1985 | Worldwide: 22 nations are said to be involved in videotex and teletext. Eleven use Prestel, five use CEPT, two use NAPLPS and four use French Antiope. | Videotex systems are planned in at least 20 major U.S. cities. Most are based on either Viewtron or Gateway technology, E&P reports. | France: Some 3 million Minitel terminals are in use. | Japan: Construction of a nationwide fiber-optic network nears completion. |
| 1985 con't |
San Francisco: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, The WELL, is created by Stewart Brand. | French telephone company registers 15.7 million videotex sessions in a two-month period. | Asian countries using videotex or teletext include Australia, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and New Zealand. | |
| 1985 con't |
The first 32-bit processor, the 16-Mhz 80386, is introduced by Intel. Most analysts consider it overkill. | |||
| 1985 con't |
March 15: First registered Internet domain name, Symbolics.com, is issued. | Germany: Bildschirmtext boasts 28,000 subscribers and 3,700 information providers. | ||
| 1985 con't |
June: Prestel reports 103,000 E-mail messages are being sent each month and 7.3 million pages are viewed. | Quantum Computer Services, which goes on to create AppleLink, Q-Link, PC-Link and, finally, America Online, is founded in Vienna, VA. | May: French gaming system, Funitel, averages 100,000 hours of use a month and grosses $7 million in 1985. | |
| 1985 con't |
IBM, Sears and CBS announce a partnership to create Trintex, eventually renamed Prodigy. | European countries using teletext or videotex include Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden. | ||
| 1985 con't |
Prestel reports its first profit in the third quarter. | Oct. 1: Viewtron goes national with a service for personal computers. Kits for early PCs cost $9.95. | ||
| 1985 con't |
Oct. 21: General Electric Co. announces the launch of GEnie, a dialup information and entertainment system for PC users. Price: $35 an hour prime time; $5 an hour nights and weekends. | |||
| 1985 con't |
Ontario, Canada: The Hamilton Spectator starts up CompuSpec, a mainframe-based BBS system. | November: Japan's first teletext services begin commercial operation around Tokyo and Osaka. | ||
| 1985 con't |
Keycom shuts down late in the year. | France: 22 million callers in France use videotex services in December. | December: Japan's Captain boasts 630 information providers. | |
| 1985 con't |
Microsoft ships Windows 1.0. It is not well received and suffers dismal sales. | |||
| 1985 con't |
Microsoft begins developing its first Mac applications. Word for Mac would be released in December of 1985. |
| 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 |
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