Bubble and People Power

Bubble and People Power.

The last videos within the Download: The True Story of the Internet series begins with "Bubble" which discusses the success stories of eBay and Amazon. This video section is so interesting because it shows the development and growth of two companies who had completely different business models and founders. It also discusses the different innovations and their successes or failures throughout the past years. Amazon's "Get Big Fast" motto is amazing to hear about now considering how much Amazon has grown since the company's early days. As a frequent Amazon shopper, I would say Amazon is more than big. They're a HUGE company. The video goes over the public key cryptology and how the use of of credit cards could be used safely and effectively across networks. Both Amazon and eBay led the dot-com boom and paved the road for future business models. When watching the Bubble video, it's unbelievable to imagine the beginning of e-commerce and online shopping. So many people questioned the success of most of the companies. And, many were leery of purchasing stock from any of these dot-com companies. All of this occurred in the 90's and early 2000s. It wasn't that long ago. It's so crazy to see how these companies and others have grown and succeeded since the early e-commerce and dot-com boom days.

The last video "People Power" talks about Facebook, Myspace, digg and Napster. Originally, the Internet changed millions of lives. Now, people are changing the Internet. I remember when I was in middle school and high school when you had to drive to the store, purchase a music CD and also have a CD or tape player in order to actually hear the music. In 1999, Shawn Fanning had the idea for Napster and the peer-to-peer sharing with other computer users. This entire revolution has completely changed the way we listen, share and download music. Napster changed the entire music industry. Now, we have iTunes and many other innovative music sites on the Internet. It's unbelievable to see how Napster started and also how quickly it ended. But, this company completely changed the life of music! Amazing. Music is a powerful tool and many people listen and share all varieties of music for different reasons. The Internet has made this sharing and downloading an easy, quick task to accomplish. I can't wait to see what happens with music innovations in the future.