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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 |
2000-2005
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| Year | U.K. | U.S. & Canada | Europe | Asia |
2000 |
Jan. 10: America Online announces it will acquire Time Warner in a deal worth $162 billion, an agreement Wall Street Journal technology columnist Kara Swisher later calls the "messiest merger" in corporate history. | OhmyNews is founded by Oh Yeon Ho in Seoul, South Korea. During the country's election, the free online news service registers 20 million page views per day in a country of 40 million. | ||
| 2000 cont. |
Feb. 23: Stock prices for online companies have risen so high that Michael Bloomberg tells the Editor & Publisher Interactive conference in New Orleans that Yahoo! has a higher market capitalization than the six largest American newspaper companies combined. | |||
| 2000 con't |
April: U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson finds Microsoft violated U.S. antitrust law. | |||
| 2000 con't |
June 26, 2000: Google and Yahoo! announce a partnership that results in a combined 18 million user queries daily. | |||
| 2000 con't |
June: Jackson orders Microsoft split into two companies. | |||
| 2000 con't |
July: America Online announces it has hit the 25 million subscriber mark. |
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| 2000 con't |
July: Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 5.5. | |||
| 2000 con't |
Fall: Studies show that fewer Web users are clicking on banner and button ads. Percentages, once 1 percent or higher, are now .1 percent. | |||
| 2001 | Leisure Link, a British supplier of electronic game machines, has begun supplying 250 pubs with an Itbox, an interactive console that allows customers to download videos, play games and even buy new ring tones for their cell phones. | Internet-related stocks, flying high for years, drop dramatically. Yahoo, for example, goes from $216 in December 1999 to $11.37 in March 2001. The NASDAQ index, which topped 5000 in March 2000, hovers at about 2000 a year later. | ||
| 2001 con't |
March: With advertising revenue falling, major news organization lay off staff in their online operations. New York Times Digital, for example, cuts 100 positions. Print operations suffer layoffs as well. Knight Ridder rids itself of 10 percent of its workforce. | |||
| 2001 con't |
Interactive TV takes off in Britain, where 23 percent of households are expected to use it this year, the New York Times reports. This compares with 9 percent in Europe and 7.5 percent in the U.S. | May: AOL has 29 million subscribers and AOL-Time Warner says it has 133 million subscribers to AOL, cable and magazines. The New York Times reports 57 percent of U.S. households have some type of Internet access. | May: Some 461 million people world-wide are connected to the Internet, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a study from IDC. Forecasts say it will be 1 billion by 2005. | |
| 2001 con't |
Some 35 percent of British households will connect to the Internet via computer this year, Jupiter MMXI in London predicts. | May 23: AOL says it will raise rates for the first time in three years. Unlimited access will cost $23.90 a month for U.S. customers, an increase of 9 percent. | ||
| 2001 con't |
June: More than 42 million U.S. office workers have Internet access at work, an increase of 23 percent in the past year, says Nielsen//NetRatings. | |||
| 2001 con't |
June 27: A federal appeals court throws out the antitrust judgment against Microsoft, citing errors by the trial judge. | |||
| 2001 con't |
July: 63 percent of U.S. households have computers, and "nearly all of them" have Internet access, the Wall Street Journal reports. | |||
| 2001 con't |
So called "Internet appliances," simple devices to help non-computer users get online, fail to take off. Microsoft's $100 WebTV device sells just 1 million units in 5 years. | |||
| 2001 con't |
October: Microsoft releases the Windows XP operating system. | |||
| 2001 con't |
October: Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 6.0. | |||
| 2001 con't |
October: Microsoft, Justice Department tentatively agree to settle U.S. antitrust case. | |||
| 2001 con't |
October: AOL raises its subscription price to $23.90 a month, an increase of $1.95. | |||
| 2001 con't |
November: America Online passes the 32 million subscriber mark, adding 1 million in 2-1/2 months. MSN has 7 million and Earthlink has 4.8 million. NetZero counts 6.1 million users, but only 1.25 million of them pay. | |||
| 2001 con't |
November: Apple introduces the first Apple iPod. | |||
| 2002 |
April: NAA study finds that online newspapers are the top source for local news on the Web. | October: Financial Times reports the closing of AOL Spain's Madrid offices. | ||
| 2003 | July: The Guardian Unlimited offers what it claims is a first in UK online newspaper publishing: a subscription service for ad-free content. The initial price is just under 100 GBP per year. | July: America Online introduces AOL 9.0 optimized.
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October: There are now three dominant channels for the Internet search consumer in Europe: Google, Yahoo! and MSN | Chinese companies Huicong Int'l, Baidu.com and 3721.com launch search engines. CEO of Baidu.com, Li Yanhong reports domestic Chinese searches increased by 200% during 2002. |
| 2003 con't |
October: The Sun claims to be the UK's most popular online newspaper, recording three million unique visitors to its website. | July 15: The Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit California organization, is established. The foundation soon produces the award-winning Mozilla browser. | November: The Western Mail reports Scandinavia leads the world in the Digital Access Index, with Sweden in first, followed by Denmark and Iceland. | Taiwan's Central News Agency reports 61 percent of the island's population (12.64 million people) use the Internet and 9 million use broadband equipment. |
| 2003 con't |
October: Dutch fileshare program KaZaa is the most downloaded piece of software in history, with 230 million PCs with it installed. | October: America Online launches AOL Latino. | ||
| 2003 con't |
November: The UK's 10 most widely-read online newspapers all fail to meet accessibility standards for users with visual impairment, dyslexia or physical disability, according to AbilityNet. | December: Factcheck.org is launched by the Annenburg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania; its purpose is to monitor the accuracy of "political speeches, ads, interviews and any other method that one candidate, party, or special interest group might use in promoting a specific view." | Financial Times reports the top four Chinese search engines are: www.sina.com.cn, www.sohu.com.cn, www.163.com, www.baidu.com. Asia Pulse reports Naver.com is S. Korea's top search engine. |
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| 2004 | January: The UCLA World Internet Project reports that 63.6% of British men and 55.0% of British women use the Internet. | Jan. 20: Apple's 4-gigabyte iPod Mini is released and sells well. | March 24: EU fines Microsoft a record $497 million euros ($613 million) and demands a Windows version without its media player made available. Microsoft appeals the ruling. | January: The UCLA World Internet Project reports that more than twice as many Internet users in China compared to any other surveyed country say using the Internet increases their contact with people who share their political interests. |
| 2004 con't |
March: The Manchester-based Guardian Unlimited newspaper has 7.5 million unique visitors -- less than 1/3 live in the UK. |
January: The founder of the Alphaville Herald, the online newspaper reporting the activities of the Sims Online Internet game, is banished from the online community by the game's creator, Electronic Arts. This sparks claims of censorship against the company. | January: The Nordic Business Report states that Norwegian online newspapers have strengthened market share while traditional newspapers have declined. | March: The Korea Times reports more than 11 million Korean households have broadband connections. |
| 2004 con't |
March: Despite being the dominant all-news cable channel, Foxnews.com still attracts only 1/4 of CNN.com's online audience. | |||
| 2004 con't |
March: NAA study finds online newspaper users to be younger, better educated and buy more online than general Internet users. | |||
| 2004 con't |
An AOL survey finds that 70% of U.S. teens age 12-17 use the Internet for instant messaging, which is expected to overtake e-mail as the most popular form of Internet communication in 2005. |
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
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| 1960s | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2000s |