The Top 10 Internet Moments of the Decade

1. Craiglist Expands Outside San Francisco (2000)

Although Craig Newmark started Craigslist in 1995 as an e-mail list for friends and co-workers about San Francisco Bay Area events, it became a true Internet force in 2000.

In that year, the free classifieds site expanded to nine additional U.S. cities, threatening local newspapers’ longtime monopoly on classified advertising.

Now Craigslist serves more than 700 cities in 70 countries, providing free listings for jobs, apartments and nearly everything else under the sun.

2. Google AdWords Launches (2000)

Larry Page and Sergey Brin incorporated Google in 1998, but it was in 2000 that it found its main source of revenue: Google AdWords, which lets businesses of all sizes post ads on Google.

The pay-per-click system “turned advertising on its head,” the Webby Awards said in a statement. “The self-service ad program opened up the marketplace to any business, no matter how big or small, and allowed advertisers to target their customers with laser-sharp precision.”

3. Wikipedia Launches (2001)

Launched in 2001, the free user-generated online encyclopedia quickly became the reference site of choice for Internet users.

By the end of its first year, it had 20,000 articles in 18 languages. It reached its one millionth article in 2006. Today, it has more than 14 million articles in 271 languages.

4. Napster Shutdown (2001)

The popular music-sharing Web site was shut down in 2001, but according to the Webby Awards, it “opened the file-sharing floodgates.” From Hulu to iTunes, Napster led to myriad new ways to get music and video.

5. Google’s IPO (2004)

In 2004, Google sold shares to the public for the very first time, turning the company’s earliest employees into millionaires. Since then, the company has become one of the most influential companies on the planet, changing people’s lives with its search engine, Gmail, Google Earth, Google Maps, YouTube and Google Android smart-phone software.

6. Online Video Revolution (2006)

What happens when you combine faster bandwidth, cheaper camcorders and YouTube’s video player? According to the Webby Awards, that “perfect storm” in 2006 launched the online video revolution.

From lonelygirl15 to Obama Girl to British singing sensation Susan Boyle, online videos have changed the way we see politics and pop culture and everything in between.

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