The True Story of the Internet

The video "Download: The True Story of the Internet" investigates the digital, social and commercial revolution that the Internet has created, as well as showing how the competition for markets and growth/improvement towards new and improved solutions continues to drive innovation and success.

Search:

This section of the video revolved around the search engine startups that have revolutionized the Internet: Yahoo, Exite, and, of course, the leader of them all, Google. It’s interesting that corporate communities were, at first, doubtful about the use of search engines for business and commerce, as they have now completely integrated commerce and search engines, generating billions of dollars in revenue each year.

Although Google is now one of the largest companies in the U.S., it did not start out that way. Before the creation of Google, Yahoo stood as the main search engine until people started to look for new ways of searching because their searches were not generating the right results. When Google came along, they brought with them a new way to search, using keywords and algorithms that provided the consumer the results they were looking for. With the goal of pushing Yahoo out of the competition, Google attempted to form an alliance with Exite, offering the company for $1 million. It’s ridiculous how many insane opportunities have been passed up because of skepticism! Exite didn’t think there was any money in search engines, and passed up the chance of a lifetime by refusing the offer of the now multi-billion dollar company! I wish I had the money to invest in something like that...because I would do it in a heartbeat!

I also thought it was interesting that Google stole Bill Gross’ idea of advertising on the Internet. Needing to create a source of revenue to please their angel investors, Google knew that they only way of doing so was through advertising. But being “Google,” they wanted to maintain the user-friendly experience, which led to them to Bill Gross, founder of Idealab, who solved the problem of Web advertising by linking together the keywords entered by the user with sponsored links from advertisers calling it “Overture.” Stealing it from under Gross, Google created a similar experience with a few tweaks, calling it “AdWords.” At least Gross was smart enough to realize what he had discovered and after filing suit was given a hefty settlement of Google’s market shares. It seems all the great ideas were somehow taken from something/someone else--I mean take Facebook for example! Zuckerberg is dealing with all kinds of lawsuits!

This realization of how to generate income from Internet advertising on search engines has become the future of market research, and will continue to stand as such in the years to come.

Power People:

This section shows how the creation of Web 2.0 and social networking sites have forever changed how we use the Internet and our reasons for using it in the first place.  Once the Internet was primarily used to  search and look up information, but now it is used to communicate with friends and family, and even acquaintances, sharing stories, photos, music and videos...and it all started with Napster.  

I remember when Napster came out...it was the hottest thing around because it was the first site to bring music to the Web through peer-to-peer sharing.  Though it was a huge controversy, the rise and fall of Napster marks an important time in history as it began a digital revolution that gave rise to a world of online sharing and communicating.  That's what I love and find the most interesting, is that no matter where you are, next door or in another country, we can now share with anyone, communication with anyone.  This digital world is constantly changing and I am so excited and eager to see what will come out next.