The last decade has been, more than ever, a period of great milestones on the internet.
As the year is coming to end, the New York-based International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences bestows its annual Webby Awards to some of the most notable happenings in the digital world.
“The Internet is the story of the decade because it was the catalyst for change in not just every aspect of our everyday lives, but in everything from commerce and communication to politics and pop culture,” David-Michel Davies, the executive director of the Webby Awards, said.
“The recurring theme among all of the milestones on our list is the Internet’s capacity to circumvent old systems and put more power into the hands of ordinary people,” he said.
The top 10 most influential Internet moments of the decade according to the Webby Awards are as follows:
– Craigslist online classified site expands outside San Francisco (2000)
– the launch of Google AdWords (2000)
– the launch of online encyclopedia Wikipedia (2001)
– the shutdown of file-sharing site Napster (2001)
– Google’s initial public offering (2004)
– the online video revolution led by YouTube (2006)
– Facebook opens to non-college students and Twitter launches (2006)
– Apple’s iPhone debuts (2007)
– the use of the Internet in the US presidential campaign (2008)
– the use of Twitter during the Iranian election protests (2009)
The 14th Annual Webby Awards will be announced on April 2010.
Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/afp/20091119/tc_afp/usinternetwebbyawards
