The Conversation: On the Battle of Seattle’s 20th anniversary, let’s remember the Aussie coders who created live sharing. “Today, online publishing allows multiple people to post text and multimedia content simultaneously to websites in real time, and have others comment on posts. But this format, used on sites like Facebook and Twitter, was first conceptualised, coded and adopted by a handful of Sydney-based activists back in the 1990s. These individuals were pioneers in kickstarting the digital disruption of mainstream media, and their actions enabled the world to openly and easily share content online.”
Internet history
Vox: For 20 years, Neopets has taught us how to care for virtual pets — and each other
Vox: For 20 years, Neopets has taught us how to care for virtual pets — and each other. “It’s hard to pinpoint when, exactly, kids and teens became 100 percent plugged in — fully online, all the time. But 1999 would be a decent guess, and November 1999 an especially good one, as it marked the launch of Neopets: a kid-friendly social network that combined virtual pets with discussion forums, games, and even a stock market. Neopets ultimately evolved into something magical, and an inextricable part of many a millennial’s formative years.”
BuzzFeed News: Before Mark Zuckerberg Tried To Kill TikTok, He Wanted To Own It
BuzzFeed News: Before Mark Zuckerberg Tried To Kill TikTok, He Wanted To Own It. “As Facebook’s chief wooed the Chinese government publicly with demonstrations of deference and appeasement, he was quietly working to close an acquisition deal with a Shanghai-based startup that, had it been consummated, would have reshaped the social media landscape as much as the social network’s purchase of Instagram or WhatsApp had. Zuckerberg wanted Musical.ly, a Chinese lip-synching app that was popular among American teens and, according to three people familiar with the conversations, Facebook spent much of the second half of 2016 trying to make that happen.”
The Atlantic: How to Make a Website
The Atlantic: How to Make a Website. “While there’s no telling exactly how many people have learned to French-kiss from wikiHow, we know for sure that more than 22 million people have viewed the article that teaches that particular lesson.”
MEL Magazine: An Oral History of LimeWire: The Little App That Changed the Music Industry Forever
MEL Magazine: An Oral History of LimeWire: The Little App That Changed the Music Industry Forever. “In 2001, the internet’s premier file-sharing service Napster was shut down after just two years, leaving a giant vacuum in the ever-expanding peer-to-peer file-sharing space. There was, however, no putting the toothpaste back into the tube. Suddenly, it was possible — and extremely popular — to download media for free. It was only a matter of time before the next platform emerged to meet that demand.”
From Instagram to Candy Crush: These are the most important apps of the decade (CNET)
CNET: From Instagram to Candy Crush: These are the most important apps of the decade. “As part of CNET’s Decade in Review here are our picks for the impactful apps of the 2010s. I crowdsourced this list from every CNET editor and then curated it further from there. The result is the list below in no particular order.”
The Verge: A critical analysis of scroll bars throughout history
The Verge: A critical analysis of scroll bars throughout history. “Sébastien Matos has built a fantastic interactive trip through the history of one of the most important UI elements we encounter every day: the scroll bar. He’s recreated, as faithfully as possible, 30 years of scroll bars from some of the top desktop platforms of their day, from Xerox Star to Windows 10.”
