Digital Innovation Days

When Gmail was launched on the 1st of April, 2004, many considered it to be a huge joke by Google. Today, this free email service boasts a user-base of 1.8 billion users worldwide. Written in Java, C++, and JavaScript, Gmail is available in 105 languages. Gmail came with vast storage, a fresh new interface, and instant search, among other existing features. Initially, Gmail was an invite-only service and until 2007, users could sign up only through invites.

From the very start, Google strived to set itself apart from its competition. Apart from enjoying high storage, users were able to search through their inboxes at immensely fast speeds. Attachment sizes were also increased to 25MB. What truly made Gmail stand out was the search feature whose capability was far beyond what was offered by even the major webmail services at the time. This was made possible by a serious increase in the storage space - 1 GB for each user - which allowed users to keep all their emails instead of regularly deleting them to stay under the limit. While this figure may not be groundbreaking by today’s standards, back then Hotmail and Yahoo Mail only provided 2 to 4 megabytes of storage.

The launch of Gmail was a significant moment in tech history for various reasons. Not only was it the first true landmark service from Google since its search engine, but it also completely overshadowed Hotmail and Yahoo Mail - the two most dominant free webmail services of the time. With its array of advanced features, Gmail was the first major cloud-based application that had the potential to replace conventional personal computing software and not just complement it. Thus, what was naively presumed to be a hoax by many before its launch, turned out to be very real and revolutionary.

As the U.S. Census Bureau signed the contract for the first commercially produced digital computer in the U.S., it marked the beginning of a new era in technology. Short for “Universal Automatic Computer”, UNIVAC was dedicated a few months later and was able to perform classification for an average citizen, classifying them into categories of sex, age, marital status, birthplace, residence, education, and employment, etc. At the time of its creation, it was the fastest business machine built yet.

UNIVAC was a stored-program computer with 5,400 vacuum tubes, used alphanumeric characters, consumed 125 kW, possessed the ability to tabulate 4,000 items within a minute, weighed 16,686 pounds, and could verify its own work. Termed as a mathematical genius, UNIVAC both surprised the masses with its stellar capabilities and scared them with its ability to replace numerous jobs. Interestingly, in 1952, this machine was able to correctly predict Dwight D. Eisenhower’s unexpected landslide victory in the presidential election after only a small percentage of the votes had been cast.

The need for UNIVAC stemmed from the search for mechanical devices that aid and accelerate computation. Given the large volume of data associated with counting in a census, the bureau required faster processing speeds, which UNIVAC offered. It is undeniable that technology has evolved too rapidly for UNIVAC and similar machines to be of any practical use in this time and day. After UNIVAC, smaller and more power-efficient transistor computers were introduced, followed by the development of integrated-circuit machines. More recently, microprocessors enabled the development of personal computers and lastly, laptops. However, it is difficult to imagine all of these highly efficient machines into existence if it were not for UNIVAC and how it commercialised digital computers.

With the first-ever tweet made by Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter, on the 21st of March, 2006, the immensely popular social media platform was launched. Interestingly, this tweet was sold for $2.9 million early in 2021 with its buyer Malaysian-based Sina Estavi likening it to Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The tweet, which said “just setting up my twttr”, laid the foundation to what has now become a company with a market capitalisation of around $50 billion. Today, Twitter boasts roughly 400 million users which include celebrities, politicians, and journalists among a bevy of other celebrated personalities.

Essentially an online microblogging service, Twitter offers a network of users where communication is done throughout the day with brief messages called “tweets”. Initially, Evan Williams and Biz Stone, two ex-employees at Google, created a startup called Odeo, which was meant to be a podcasting platform. However, with the launch and rise of Apple’s iTunes, Odeo was not relevant anymore. Therefore, these two along with Jack Dorsey, an Odeo employee, decided to reinvent themselves and brainstormed new ideas. It was then that Jack came up with the idea of an SMS (Short Message Service) that would allow users to communicate within a small group. This plan eventually evolved into Twitter.

The real strength of Twitter lies in real-time. No other social media comes close to updating its users about the world and its latest happenings. Beyond technology, Twitter has also largely benefitted politics, science, business, journalism, and celebrity culture. By allowing far greater access to public figures than any other platform, facilitating and fueling activism (e.g. #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo), and changing the way news is consumed by the masses (multiple perspectives of the same story and democratization of information), Twitter continues to change the world - as any revolutionary technology is expected to.

When Hulu launched for the general public on the 12th of March, 2008, it offered access to all within the United States. Previously, a beta version of this video streaming platform had also been privately launched. Although Hulu offered only a selection of content (television shows, films, and news) free of cost, users could now watch content on the internet without paying satellite television or cable providers. It took this website only a year to become the fourth-largest video site in the United States. Owned by The Walt Disney Company and Comcast, today Hulu offers its services in the United States and Japan only owing to licensing restrictions.

In 2016, the platform was overhauled and converted into a subscription-based model which gave Hulu the chance to exponentially increase its library. Additionally, Hulu offers live streaming from 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, The Walt Disney Company, CBS Corporation, Turner Networks, The CW, A+E Networks, and Discovery Networks, allowing its users to choose from a diverse selection set - a feature not common in streaming services. In addition to this, certain features set Hulu apart from other video streaming sites, Netflix included, showcasing why the name is still relevant and successful over a decade after its launch. It has a fast turnaround of current television, has impressively strong network partnerships, and offers competitive pricing (it even has a free option with a limited catalogue!).

As it is important for any technological innovation aiming to stay relevant, Hulu has reinvented itself over the years to better suit its clientele’s requirements and preferences. It is no longer just the website users visit to watch the next-day TV show replays. It now offers its own live TV provider. Bringing convenience to its users, Hulu believes that TV should be mobile, suit one’s lifestyle, and be an application essentially. It is perhaps this user-centric approach to development and technology that helps Hulu stay a popular video streaming name.

Founded by David Filo and Jerry Yang, graduate students at Stanford University, Yahoo! was incorporated on the 2nd of March, 1995. Initially, the site was called “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web” but as it grew in popularity, it was renamed Yahoo!, an acronym for “Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle”. Back then, it was only meant to be a useful guide to navigate the world wide web, and not a business. Today, Yahoo! provides users with information, online utilities, and access to other websites. Its features include a search engine, an email service, a news branch, and a directory.

In the late 1990s, Yahoo! was among the major players in the internet frenzy. Although some losses were sustained, it even survived the collapse of numerous internet-based companies in 2001-2002. With multiple major moves, the company remained a notable name in the industry. It battled Google for many years to retain a higher share of the search engine market. It released its Yahoo! Instant Messenger and bought out Flickr, the internet photo network. Another astonishing step was its acquisition of a 40% share of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant. Throughout the years, Yahoo has made multiple attempts at reorganisation and reconstruction, with David Filo believing that “technology is about constant reinvention”.

Although Yahoo! has lost its footing now, for some time in recent history, it was the biggest internet phenomenon. In fact, when the company was only 5 years old, it was worth more than Ford, Chrysler, and GM combined. Many of the apps and services that the internet is filled with today were either invented by Yahoo! or soon found a home there (Broadcast.com, Flickr, Yahoo Notebook, Yahoo Music, etc.). It was, additionally, the pioneer of the pay-per-click advertising model. In 2017, Verizon acquired Yahoo! for $4.8 billion, ending the run of what was once deemed the king of the internet.

On the 22nd of February, 1999, the First Internet Bank of Indiana (First IB) opened its virtual doors to the public. This was the first state-chartered FDIC-insured institution to operate only through the internet. Marketed as the first “extended value online bank”, it provided a full range of real-time internet banking products as well as personalised interactive services. Today, it offers services in all 50 states where customers can have checking and savings (both regular and money market) accounts with competitive interest rates. Besides this, First IB offers credit cards, instalment loans, mortgages, and personal lines of credit.

Sitting at the intersection of finance and technology, First IB introduced a branchless financial institution that conducted transactions over the internet exclusively. This was at a time when only around 5% of the world population had access to the internet and only one-fourth of all U.S. banks had websites, with very few offering any kind of online banking services. To even consider that technology could do banking better than well-established financial organisations was a downright outrageous idea at the time to many. Interestingly, First IB was able to offer higher interest rates on deposits and charged no fees for most of its services since it did not have to maintain any branches and had lower overhead than most traditional banks. Moreover, such a bank has fewer access points than a brick-and-mortar structure, leading to stronger security.

First IB made banking available and convenient outside of the regular hours and introduced a completely new style of banking. Above all else, this venture signifies how efficiently technology can rival traditional, non-technical solutions - even when masses are sceptical about its success initially. Additionally, the idea of First IB reinforces how technology is truly meant to be employed - to bring convenience to the lives of people.

The introduction of the IBM Portable Personal Computer 5155 - a product whose roaring success surprised many, including IBM itself - on the 16th of February, 1984 popularised personal computers for everyday use. Weighing about 30 pounds, this computer had the following specifications: built-in ROM Basic, 256K memory standard, 9-inch 25x80 monochrome amber screen which could display graphics, DOS, and Intel 8088 4.77MHz CPU. The keyboard could be detached or folded and snapped shut in the case covering the computer. Priced at $2900, it was an immediate hit with the public and became the first personal computer to gain widespread adoption by the industry.

Initially, IBM could not find enough applications for this PC to justify acceptance on a broad basis. Moreover, even if this idea could be approved, it would not have been completed in a short timeframe. However, Bill Lowe, a lab director at IBM, stepped forward and claimed that he could develop a portable personal computer within a year. It was then that a team consisting of 12 developers was established which set out to create this device in 12 months. They were tasked with devising a plan for the software, hardware, marketing setup, and sales strategy. As the plan progressed, more talent and expertise was brought into this project.

Although personal computers were available as early as the 1970s, they provided very few applications that did not justify widespread and mainstream use. However, IBM offered a full suite of important applications that could justify broad adoption by the market. It became so popular that for a year or two, the Columbia Business School required every student to have this computer. In addition to this, it was IBM’s brand recognition as well as the massive marketing campaign that led to the fast growth of the personal computers industry. Furthermore, this computer was widely cloned and gave birth to a vast ecosystem of hardware, software, and peripherals to use with it.

The revolutionary launch of Google Maps on the 8th of February, 2005, transformed the way we use maps for directions and navigate the world with our smartphones. Initially, it was launched for desktop as a solution for people to get from one point to another. Today, it’s a gateway to exploration - whether you are travelling by car, bike, public transport, boat, wheelchair, or on foot.

Google Maps makes use of a combination of data sources such as aggregate location data, real-time users feedback, historical traffic patterns and local government data along with machine learning. There are multiple views that a user can switch between depending upon their need(s). With over 1 billion monthly active users, it ranks high among the leading mapping applications worldwide. It offers driving directions for 194 countries, spanning over 28 million miles of road. It can provide local information for more than 80 million places across the world and live traffic data from over 50 countries. All of this data is kept up-to-date and reliable with tens of thousands of updates daily.

Although Google was not the first to introduce online maps (the world wide web supported the first online maps in 1993), it brought digital maps to the mainstream and popularised their usage. Interestingly, a wide array of other applications and services today rely on Google Maps - Uber, Airbnb, WhatsApp, and UrbanSpoon all are based on Google Maps application user interface (API). This service was invented with the vision to “create one seamless, browsable map of the entire world” - a daunting task that Google Maps has accomplished exceptionally well. The marriage of complicated technologies and diverse data sources in Google Maps has humanised and contextualised location to make it more relevant to us, as should be the purpose of technology and innovation.

Facebook was founded on the 4th of February, 2004, as “The facebook” by Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Chris Hughes, and Dustin Moskovitz, following the high popularity of Facemash. In 2003, these four Harvard students created Facemash, an online service to judge and rate how attractive their fellow students were. The pictures received 22,000 votes from 450 students. However, since this was in violation of the university rules, Facemash was shut down after just two days. Zuckerberg, however, noticed how well-received and popular Facemash was and registered the domain name: thefacebook.com. In February 2012, Facebook filed to become a public company, raising $16 billion in May - the largest Initial Public Offering (IPO) for any internet company till then.

What started as a Harvard social networking website is now the biggest global internet phenomenon today. With nearly 3 billion monthly active users, it is the leading social media platform. However, today, Facebook has transitioned beyond just a place for people to share their lives with their friends. It is an entire ecosystem offering opportunities to thrive in multiple facets of life - business, entertainment, politics, journalism, communication, etc. In fact, this tech giant has grown to the point where it owns a few of the most popular social media networks available to us - WhatsApp and Instagram, for instance.

Over the years, among the challenges that Facebook had to constantly battle, privacy and misinformation remain significant problems. Users have been sceptical of the confidentiality of their data and concerned over the veracity of the information they consume. That being said, it is undeniable that Facebook has forever altered computing and technology. It has been a driving force in open source for many years and shared its innovative hardware and software tools with the broader community. It has, furthermore, given birth to Big Data (in the form of Cassandra database), created millions of jobs, became a major platform for political parties to contest elections, helped organise revolutions, and decided what news is. To put it simply, we have not seen a bigger and more powerful internet phenomenon in our times than Facebook.

The creation of the Domain Name System (DNS) on the 1st of January, 1985 transformed the way the internet was browsed. Essentially the phonebook of the internet, the DNS allowed users to access information using domain names instead of IP addresses.

Each machine or device connected to the internet has a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address that is used to find and interact with a particular device. These IP addresses can be in the IPv4 format (such as 192.168.1.1) or the newer, alphanumeric IPv6 format (like 2400:cb00:2048:1::c629:d7a2). Web browsers interact and load internet resources using IP addresses. While this is completely understandable for machines, it is exceptionally difficult for humans to memorise more than a few IP addresses. To make accessing websites easier, the DNS was created which translates domain names (such as google.com) to IP addresses. While the way the DNS works involves several servers and can be a long-winded process, it takes a few milliseconds only to fetch an IP address given a domain name.

If it weren’t for the DNS, we would still be using difficult-to-remember strings of numbers like 192.58.9.34 instead of the easy and memorable domain names that we use today. DNS enabled users to have a more user-friendly, collaborative, and diverse internet. With over 363.5 million registered domain names, the DNS is not only a fundamental part of the internet today but also its backbone. In fact, if a DNS is not responding, a connection to other websites over the internet cannot be established. Interestingly, before personal computing became popular, the few users over the internet could memorise and recognise some familiar IP addresses but this is beyond practical in today’s time and age with millions of domain names and even more IP addresses, which further underscores how significant the DNS is.