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15 Websites That Changed the World

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the shake-it-up dept.

nuke-alwin writes "To mark the web's 15th anniversary, The Guardian is reporting on 15 websites that changed the world. Everything from commercial sites like eBay and Amazon to social collaboratives like Wikipedia and Slashdot made the list." From the article's comments on Blogger: "Content was once made by companies for passive consumption by people. After Blogger, people were the content. They wrote about and read about their friends, their opinions, their cats. (There was a lot about cats in the early blogs.) None had a huge audience but collectively they were massive. Now you see TV networks saying: 'We've gotta get on the web because that's where the audience is,' says Williams."

6 of 298 comments (clear)

  1. #16 The Pirate Bay? by Keruo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Founded: 2004 by Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm

    users: alot

    What is it? One of the only filesharing sites able to stick it to the man. Even after dealing with police.

    Hopefully eventually able to trigger positive discussion and evolution in copyright laws.

    --
    There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
  2. Slashdot's standing... by Lord+Kano · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was a /.er for a while beforehand, but when the Columbine shootings happened and then the massive backlash against kids who "don't fit in" sparked the Hellmouth series I was hooked. Slashdot helped to change the world due to those two stories.

    Katz was a fucktard but the Hellmouth series were groundbreaking.

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
  3. LiveJournal by mdwh2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    And... blogger.com, really? I would think that livejournal would have been a better choice for the "dragging down journalistic standards/bluring the line between infotainment and slice of life." category...

    I was wondering why not LiveJournal, too. They were both created in 1999 (and according to Wikipedia, LJ was March compared with August for Blogger). LiveJournal also combined it with the social networking aspect, which I don't believe Blogger does(?). It wasn't the first social networking site - but are there any earlier ones still going today? And were there any earlier social networking sites that combined it with "blogging"/journalling?

    Not to mention the source being open, and having spawned many other sites. Does that apply to blogger?

    (Though I disagree it's "dragging down journalistic standards" - LiveJournal is primarily used for journalling and discussions with friends, not "pretending to be a journalist" like many blogs - but nonetheless, LJ can be used for stereotypical standalone blogging if you wish.)

  4. Re:one man's summary by PMuse · · Score: 5, Interesting
    From profound to negligible, they are:
    • 13. google.com - Search engines indeed changed the world, but Google has never claimed to be the first.
    • 9. amazon.com, 1. eBay.com, 15. easyjet.com (Budget airline) - Online commerce is important, but there were many pioneers. Expedia.com or one of it's bretheren might deserve a mention, but the importance of budjet airlines like easyjet wasn't their websites.
    • 5. blogger.com , 4. youtube.com - Content from the masses -- writing, video, and music, too. With the cost of publishing, distribution, and holding inventory reduced to near zero, change is indeed afoot.
    • 6. friendsreunited.com (School reunion site), 8. myspace.com - Social networking sites certainly deserve a mention. The strength of their effect on social organization is not yet known.
    • 2. wikipedia.com - Online collaboration in software is changing the world, but outside the software field it hasn't proven itself yet. The field is still young, though.
    • 3. napster.com - Herald of the era of online music and of music -sharing lawsuits.
    • 14. yahoo.com - Unable to point to a great iconic achievement, the portals will wind up sharing a footnote with AOL.
    • 10. slashdot.org - A fine example of its kind, but 'changed history' is a little much.
    • 12. craigslist.org - Ditto.
    • 11. salon.com (Online magazine and media company) - Ditto.
    • 7. drudgereport.com (News site) - Ditto, sort of.

    --
    "We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)
  5. The real innovators by Animats · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Here are some of the real innovators. The links given are all to their earliest pages, from 1996.
    • Fedex.com FedEx had the first major web site that did something - you could track packages and get an immediate response.
    • Viaweb.com The first web site that supported page creation via the web. The first general-purpose shopping cart. Eventually became Yahoo Store. Implemented in LISP.
  6. Re:one man's summary by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Interesting
    14. yahoo.com - Unable to point to a great iconic achievement, the portals will wind up sharing a footnote with AOL.
    What made Yahoo different than other search engines back in that day was their directory - links chosen and edited by human beings and arranged by category with a description. Rarely used today, but powerful in it's day.