Episode 66
A History of the Internet: From Netscape to the iPhone | Brian McCullough
Episode 66
Brian McCullough
A History of the Internet: From Netscape to the iPhone | Brian McCullough
summary
In this week’s episode of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with serial technology entrepreneur and host of the Internet History Podcast, as well as the Techmeme Ride Home, Brian McCullough. Brian is also the author of HOW THE INTERNET HAPPENED, published by Liveright, a subsidiary of W.W. Norton. In 2014 he was the co-founder of a startup human named Penelope, and in 2016 he launched Maxwell into beta.
In March of 1989, CERN scientist Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal to develop a distributed information system for the laboratory. “Vague, but exciting,” was the comment that his supervisor, Mike Sendall, wrote on the cover, and with those words, gave the green light to what would become the information revolution.
Before the end of 1990, Berners-Lee would define the Web’s basic concepts: the URL, http, and html, writing the first browser and server software. For the next two years the web would remain largely inaccessible to all but the most niche academics and hypertext enthusiasts. “…there was a definite element of not wanting to make it easier, of actually wanting to keep the riff raff out,” recalled Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape. His own big idea in the winter of 1992 was the let the riff-raff in.
That opening came in the form of the Mosaic browser, which brought with it two key implementations: the support for images, and, more importantly, compatibility with Microsoft Windows, which at the time accounted for more than 80 percent of the world’s operating systems. Shortly after Mosaic launched in January of 1993, the number of websites in existence could be measured in the hundreds. By the end of 1994, that number had surpassed tens of thousands, and Mosaic was adding as many as 600,000 new users every month. Berners-Lee may have been responsible for creating the web, but it was Marc Andreessen and his team of misfits and geeks at The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, surrounded by empty pizza boxes and soda cans, that took the web mainstream.
Andreessen and his team eventually left Mosaic behind to found Netscape, taking it public in August of 1995, kicking off a 5 year mania of creative energy and enthusiasm that would see the creation of the first search engines, e-commerce platforms, and weblogs. More than seventeen million new websites were created before the end of the 20th century.
In five short years, the Internet craze kicked off by the commercialization of the browser culminated in the bursting of the most spectacular stock market bubble seen since 1929. That story – one predicated on a revolutionary technology and enabled by the dreams, ambitions, and avarice of a generation unrestrained by the prudence of their parents and untouched by the failures of the past – is a history that, until this day, has remained largely untold.
This week, on Hidden Forces, Brian McCullough joins us for a conversation on, search engines, e-commerce, web portals, social networks, and the history of the information revolution.
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod
bio
Brian McCullough has been in the Internet game since 1998. He was the founder or co-founder of the following companies: WhereAreTheJobs.com, WhoToTalkTo.com, and ResumeWriters.com. Host of the Internet History Podcast and Techmeme Ride Home, he was named to a 2016 TED Residency. He is the author of HOW THE INTERNET HAPPENED, published by Liveright, a subsidiary of W.W. Norton. He is an Arsenal fan; Gator fan; England fan. In that order. In 2014 he was the co-founder of a startup human named Penelope, and in 2016 he launched Maxwell into beta.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Minime vero istorum quidem, inquit. Non quam nostram quidem, inquit Pomponius iocans; Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Qui enim existimabit posse se miserum esse beatus non erit. Quod non faceret, si in voluptate summum bonum poneret. Parvi enim primo ortu sic iacent, tamquam omnino sine animo sint.
Quamquam id quidem, infinitum est in hac urbe; Quare attende, quaeso. Sic enim censent, oportunitatis esse beate vivere. Varietates autem iniurasque fortunae facile veteres philosophorum praeceptis instituta vita superabat. Cetera illa adhibebat, quibus demptis negat se Epicurus intellegere quid sit bonum. Quae cum dixisset paulumque institisset, Quid est?
Positum est a nostris in iis esse rebus, quae secundum naturam essent, non dolere; Sit hoc ultimum bonorum, quod nunc a me defenditur; His enim rebus detractis negat se reperire in asotorum vita quod reprehendat. Ex ea difficultate illae fallaciloquae, ut ait Accius, malitiae natae sunt. At ille pellit, qui permulcet sensum voluptate.
Scientiam pollicentur, quam non erat mirum sapientiae cupido patria esse cariorem. A mene tu? Illa argumenta propria videamus, cur omnia sint paria peccata. Ex quo, id quod omnes expetunt, beate vivendi ratio inveniri et comparari potest. Tenesne igitur, inquam, Hieronymus Rhodius quid dicat esse summum bonum, quo putet omnia referri oportere?
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vitiosum est enim in dividendo partem in genere numerare. De illis, cum volemus. Quae diligentissime contra Aristonem dicuntur a Chryippo. Rhetorice igitur, inquam, nos mavis quam dialectice disputare? Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Confecta res esset. Tecum optime, deinde etiam cum mediocri amico.
Parvi enim primo ortu sic iacent, tamquam omnino sine animo sint. Quid de Platone aut de Democrito loquar? Si longus, levis; Quod cum accidisset ut alter alterum necopinato videremus, surrexit statim. Haec mihi videtur delicatior, ut ita dicam, molliorque ratio, quam virtutis vis gravitasque postulat. Non quaero, quid dicat, sed quid convenienter possit rationi et sententiae suae dicere.
Atqui iste locus est, Piso, tibi etiam atque etiam confirmandus, inquam; Equidem etiam Epicurum, in physicis quidem, Democriteum puto. Qui enim voluptatem ipsam contemnunt, iis licet dicere se acupenserem maenae non anteponere. Qua igitur re ab deo vincitur, si aeternitate non vincitur? Quae si potest singula consolando levare, universa quo modo sustinebit?
Memini vero, inquam; Quam ob rem tandem, inquit, non satisfacit? Haec dicuntur fortasse ieiunius; Qui bonum omne in virtute ponit, is potest dicere perfici beatam vitam perfectione virtutis; Quae quidem sapientes sequuntur duce natura tamquam videntes; Theophrastus mediocriterne delectat, cum tractat locos ab Aristotele ante tractatos? Haec qui audierit, ut ridere non curet, discedet tamen nihilo firmior ad dolorem ferendum, quam venerat. Teneo, inquit, finem illi videri nihil dolere.
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Hic ego: Pomponius quidem, inquam, noster iocari videtur, et fortasse suo iure. Quamquam in hac divisione rem ipsam prorsus probo, elegantiam desidero. Res enim fortasse verae, certe graves, non ita tractantur, ut debent, sed aliquanto minutius. Ergo id est convenienter naturae vivere, a natura discedere. Te enim iudicem aequum puto, modo quae dicat ille bene noris. Duo Reges: constructio interrete.
Illa videamus, quae a te de amicitia dicta sunt. Quo plebiscito decreta a senatu est consuli quaestio Cn. Sin laboramus, quis est, qui alienae modum statuat industriae? Non quaeritur autem quid naturae tuae consentaneum sit, sed quid disciplinae. Quis Aristidem non mortuum diligit?
Quae cum essent dicta, discessimus. Te ipsum, dignissimum maioribus tuis, voluptasne induxit, ut adolescentulus eriperes P. Quae adhuc, Cato, a te dicta sunt, eadem, inquam, dicere posses, si sequerere Pyrrhonem aut Aristonem. Nam illud vehementer repugnat, eundem beatum esse et multis malis oppressum. Equidem etiam Epicurum, in physicis quidem, Democriteum puto. Tecum optime, deinde etiam cum mediocri amico. Ita multo sanguine profuso in laetitia et in victoria est mortuus. Ab hoc autem quaedam non melius quam veteres, quaedam omnino relicta.
Quicquid porro animo cernimus, id omne oritur a sensibus; Satis est ad hoc responsum. Comprehensum, quod cognitum non habet? An ea, quae per vinitorem antea consequebatur, per se ipsa curabit? Ait enim se, si uratur, Quam hoc suave! dicturum. Etsi ea quidem, quae adhuc dixisti, quamvis ad aetatem recte isto modo dicerentur. Quae qui non vident, nihil umquam magnum ac cognitione dignum amaverunt. Miserum hominem! Si dolor summum malum est, dici aliter non potest. Quae si potest singula consolando levare, universa quo modo sustinebit?
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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Quo igitur, inquit, modo? Sic exclusis sententiis reliquorum cum praeterea nulla esse possit, haec antiquorum valeat necesse est. Duo Reges: constructio interrete. Cum autem venissemus in Academiae non sine causa nobilitata spatia, solitudo erat ea, quam volueramus.
Stulti autem malorum memoria torquentur, sapientes bona praeterita grata recordatione renovata delectant. Nam Pyrrho, Aristo, Erillus iam diu abiecti. Illum mallem levares, quo optimum atque humanissimum virum, Cn. Ergo infelix una molestia, fellx rursus, cum is ipse anulus in praecordiis piscis inventus est? Quasi vero, inquit, perpetua oratio rhetorum solum, non etiam philosophorum sit. Ita redarguitur ipse a sese, convincunturque scripta eius probitate ipsius ac moribus. Bonum integritas corporis: misera debilitas. Quid de Platone aut de Democrito loquar?
Verum tamen cum de rebus grandioribus dicas, ipsae res verba rapiunt; Num igitur eum postea censes anxio animo aut sollicito fuisse? Ac tamen hic mallet non dolere. Quod cum dixissent, ille contra.
Numquam facies. Vitiosum est enim in dividendo partem in genere numerare. Mihi vero, inquit, placet agi subtilius et, ut ipse dixisti, pressius. At ego quem huic anteponam non audeo dicere; Quae hic rei publicae vulnera inponebat, eadem ille sanabat. Eadem fortitudinis ratio reperietur. Mihi quidem Homerus huius modi quiddam vidisse videatur in iis, quae de Sirenum cantibus finxerit.