The Daily Ping started a very long time ago in Internet years – all the way back in 2000. Things were much different then, as we touched on in our farewell entry, and I thought it’d be fun to compare and contrast how things were then versus now, particularly in the tech realm (isn’t this a tech site?), 14 years later.
Wikipedia didn’t exist: This was a big one. In 2000, many fansites existed that were devoted to people, TV shows, movies, and media. Each was homegrown. Some big corporations started coming after fansites for various legal reasons but, to be honest, the barrier to entry was a deterrent: you needed a hosted site (Angelfire, Tripod, GeoCities) and the ability to write HTML. I mostly see fansites as a direct parent of Wikipedia, where incredibly detailed and intricate knowledge of trivial things can bloom.
Social media didn’t exist: Instant messaging and email. That was about it. Blogs were still not yet invented by Anil Dash (I think that’s the story), much less any other type of “short updates” service – except perhaps finger and plan on the command line. This meant that news still traveled quickly thanks to the web, but the whole infrastructure of the time was more fragile than it is now. Old school instant messaging (ICQ, AIM) and email were around. Usenet was dying. The web was kind of stepping in, but it wasn’t quite there yet.
Amazon had only just started selling more than just books and CDs: E-commerce at the time was a lot more fractured. Amazon Prime didn’t exist, and most packages took a whopping 3-5 days (or more!) to arrive to US customers in the US. Amazon’s future was in serious doubt then, as people wondered how this book and CD store could make it. They seem to be doing fine now.
iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Android devices didn’t exist: The idea of carrying one’s entire music library with them was a fantasy. Computers with thicknesses measured in millimeters were also fantasies, outside of Palms and Handsprings. We started yearning for some of the things we have today, even if the ideas weren’t quite fully baked.
The Daily Ping lived slightly longer than the BlackBerry, which did not exist in phone form in 2000: The BlackBerry is all but dead as of 2013, but the traditional model – with a physical keyboard – was released around 2003. In 2000, BlackBerry was still making pagers. Pagers!
Ryan and I had not yet met: We had known each other for 9 years online, but we wouldn’t see each other until 2001. We met again in 2003, 2005, and 2013. We’re scheduled to meet again sometime before our kids can drive. Hopefully!
Posted in The Past
Rob January 6, 2014, 2:15 pm
The Ping lives! I can’t wait for next year’s entry already! Woo!
Paul McAleer January 6, 2014, 2:51 pm
I’m secretly thrilled that I don’t have to write another entry until 2016. That’s a load off!
ryan January 6, 2014, 6:37 pm
I’m going to get my next post in draft mode tonight.
Chris January 1, 2015, 3:31 pm
When the Ping started my kids were 4 and 6. They are both in college now.