An internet of firsts, some of them still online

October 28, 2014 11:41 AM

The Webpage FX blog compiled a list of 13 internet "firsts," from the first email sent (1971) and the first spam, sent out to 400 people (1978), to the first photo posted online (1992) and much later, the first Instagram photo, (2010).
posted by filthy light thief (20 comments total)

Frist.
posted by filthy light thief at 11:48 AM on October 28, 2014 [4 favorites]

I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their scanners, or why.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:48 AM on October 28, 2014 [6 favorites]

O rite: link!
posted by filthy light thief at 11:49 AM on October 28, 2014

Does anyone know when the first web-bug (aka tracking pixel) was used? I recall there been great outrage at the time and yet I can find no evidence of either the outrage or the commercial/personalization shift that happened from that point. Even the Wikipedia page and the Webbug FAQ do not mention the origin.
posted by kokaku at 12:05 PM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

According to an April 2014 report by Cyberoam, the average daily spam level around the world is approximately 54 billion emails per day. Some days are actually higher!

Author displays a keen grasp of the word "average".
posted by mrnutty at 12:12 PM on October 28, 2014 [13 favorites]

I know the first book was sold on Amazon in 1995, but I swear I always thought the first ecommerce site was JT's Stockroom. Or the first physical item sold was at JT's Stockroom. Or something. I am going to be disappointed if that is not the case.
posted by DarlingBri at 12:13 PM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

The "first photo posted online" is actually the first on the web. The usenet alt.binaries.pictures newsgroups existed before 1992.
posted by hilker at 12:19 PM on October 28, 2014 [4 favorites]

I read a long time ago (such that I can't locate the source again) that the first banhammer came down on a University of Illinois grad student in the early seventies. He was using ARPANET to circulate messages disparaging Nixon, and the Department of Defense flipped their braided lids when they learned their million-dollar project was being used to subvert the government. U of I hurriedly revoked the kid's access, and no one ever discussed politics on the internet ever again.
posted by Iridic at 12:21 PM on October 28, 2014 [6 favorites]

Neat! This seems like a decent opportunity to talk up my own thing that I do: ibiblio. We, ironically, seem to have an old and slightly broken history page here. Among other things, it mentions that we were the first to simulcast an FM broadcast over the internet back in November of 1994.
posted by tarheelcoxn at 12:22 PM on October 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

I know the first book was sold on Amazon in 1995, but I swear I always thought the first ecommerce site was JT's Stockroom. Or the first physical item sold was at JT's Stockroom. Or something. I am going to be disappointed if that is not the case.

I distinctly remember going to www.books.com, before Amazon existed. (And crying with happiness.) It was a separate company. The link later redirected to Amazon, but now it goes to Barnes and Noble, hmm.
posted by Melismata at 12:32 PM on October 28, 2014

The "first photo posted online" is actually the first on the web. The usenet alt.binaries.pictures newsgroups existed before 1992.

Right. Gizmodo got it right but the SEO site that is the first link in this post uses "Web" and "Internet" synonymously.
posted by vacapinta at 12:36 PM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

And I was lazy in cribbing text. Thanks for the clarification!

Also, I think the SEO site has two separate categories for eCommerce: the first transaction (probably a Sting CD in 1994) and the first book sold on Amazon.
posted by filthy light thief at 12:54 PM on October 28, 2014

With less SEO cruft, but also fewer links to outside references, here's a list of 15 internet firsts, including the first mobile phone with internet service/access (Nokia 9000 Communicator, 1996!), first bank to support online transactions (Stanford FCU, 1994!!), and the first blog (1994-ish, depending on what you specifically consider a blog).
posted by filthy light thief at 1:01 PM on October 28, 2014

First appearance of Wifey on Usenet: 1997
posted by Thorzdad at 1:06 PM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

This is a seriously cool list, lots of information that I didn't know!
posted by Sara_NOT_Sarah at 1:26 PM on October 28, 2014

Thank you hilker and vacapinta. I was sure there were scans of Lena (and entire usenet groups) that pre-dated the web by well over a decade.
posted by cleroy at 5:14 PM on October 28, 2014

Not exactly online, but this talk of pictures reminds me of my younger days, downloading pictures of girls (ahem) from a local BBS. Watching them come in line by line, and patiently waiting for the good parts (hey, I was like 12 years old at the time). My brothers and I would wait for what seemed like ages (some quick math says a 1200 baud modem would take about 12 minutes to download a 100k 640x480 picture), and more often that we would like ended up being trolled and not getting the picture we had expected. Or, more often than that someone would pick up the phone and the connection would get dropped in some other way. Still, better than asking the creepy homeless guy in front of 7-11 to buy us porno mags, and the anticipation was a big part of the thrill.
posted by Literaryhero at 6:10 PM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Interviewer: So you wrote the first email ever? Incredible! What did it say?

Tomlinson: [recalls strings of disgusting profanity] Uh... it was... forgettable. I forgot.
posted by stinkfoot at 8:36 PM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

First flickr photo

There's a couple test images that precede it but that is the first actual photo.
posted by vacapinta at 5:33 AM on October 29, 2014 [2 favorites]

What hath God wrought
posted by duffell at 10:25 AM on October 29, 2014