Slashdot Mirror
15 Websites That Changed the World
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."
1. eBay.com 2. wikipedia.com 3. napster.com 4. youtube.com 5. blogger.com 6. friendsreunited.com (School reunion site) 7. drudgereport.com (News site) 8. myspace.com 9. amazon.com 10. slashdot.org 11. salon.com (Online magazine and media company) 12. craigslist.org (A centralised network of online urban communities) 13. google.com (Popular search engine) 14. yahoo.com 15. easyjet.com (Budget airline)
Where's my website?! Didn't my Slashdot F.A.Q. change the world? :P
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.
Great, misformatted and I forgot to check 'Post Anonymously'. Great.
Not all these changes have been positive. In terms of large-scale changes along those lines I'd probably include the nasties such as doubleclick and whatnot. They've definately had a lasting impression on how advertising is done on the 'net (regardless of poor motives or whether it was a possitive impression)
That changed my world, permanently.
How can you trust a list like that when it doesn't include goatse. Where have they been?
napster.com wasn't really a website that changed the world, napster was a bit of software that changed the world.
#3 - Napster.com
Ummm... I don't think anybody was going there because of the website. Napster was technically a program that you downloaded and installed on your computer. It used different ports than good ol' 80 and it was not a website in any recognizable way.
Nothing wrong with Napster, I'm just sayin'!... If we let napster.com in, then why not let microsoft.com in?
Electric Monkey Pants
1. eBay.com - a big Flea Market
2. wikipedia.com - Brittanica on the bathroom wall
3. napster.com - for about three minutes
4. youtube.com - eh
5. blogger.com - they wanted to acknowledge blogging, this is their surrogate
6. friendsreunited.com (School reunion site)- never heard of it. probably helpful for stalking that girl who spit on you in 10th grade.
7. drudgereport.com (News site)- not really a News Site. A link aggregator with an agenda.
8. myspace.com - for about three MORE minutes
9. amazon.com - changed shopping, anyway.
10. slashdot.org - WHO?
11. salon.com (Online magazine and media company)- changed the world? How about "provides a home for whining elitists"?
12. craigslist.org - supermarket community bulletin board with more eyes
13. google.com - changed the Internet maybe. The WORLD? nah
14. yahoo.com - see #13
15. easyjet.com (Budget airline)- see #6
If this is how the Internet has changed the world, please have it changed back promptly.
Silly, that's because a cat owns the Internet.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Suck.com, the site that basically invented the idiom of political blogging five years early, and mocked salon.com and drudgereport.com on those sites' rise into faddishness among the "old media".
But, of course, a site like Suck would never show up on a list like this. An article about this is basically a shrine to media enthusiasm about the internet-- a validation of the idea that the importance of a website can be measured by the significance that established pre-internet information sources (like The Guardian) attach to it. In such a context, we are of course not going to reward the people who tried to look at the internet as what it actually was, rather than what the media made it out to be.
I must have been absent in geek school the day they talked about friendsreunited.com. I had never even heard about it until I read the list.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
It was much BETTER...
anon.penet.fi was a classic- more of a service than a website, but it was just one of those things that made anonymnity accesable (and yes, I did post this as AC)
have changed the world. Not as individual sites. What is remarkable is how little claim most of these sites have to world changing status.
Google is the strongest contender. But even Google did not invent the search engine, it "merely" improved it greatly. The Altavista engine, in its day, was a marvel, and it introduced on-line translation. But at the same time Altavista launched, there was Lycos and Excite.
As a class search engine sites have certainly changed the world. But they appear to me to be a natural development of the web.
It is possible that a web site like the Drudge report might tip an election and change the world but it hasn't happened.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
What the hell does 5.5m users per month mean? AFAIK the user IDs aren't even at 1m yet.
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
Interesting, he's going to go down in history with similar status as Gutenberg. One of the very very few people alive who will still be referenced in 500, 1000 years where even kings, prime ministers and presidents will be forgotten.
Deleted
Maybe I've just missed the boat on that one, but it doesn't seem to have more of an impact than any of the sites listed below it... and EasyJet? First time I've heard of them, but again, could've just been out to lunch for that one, but both seem more like advertising plugs than deserving of being on the list. If anything, those modding group websites that release patches like good old Hot Coffee for GTA seem to have made a much larger impact. Shit, if you're going to put up Napster as a website, then you might as well add iTunes.com too. I do wish Cryptome was up there, but... not too surprised it isn't.
Oh well. I suppose most irk-worthy point is that artists haven't found a large, well-organized central hub on the web to gather around. I suppose Deviantart counts, but... not really. Friends that are far more talented than I can't find any good groups (and technically, the site discourages forming groups. Brilliant.) to organize projects with or easily find people of the same caliber, or just the same level of dedication (hobbyist vs. career artist).
That, and as it was noted before, the job-finding/headhunting websites are ridiculously inept in comparison to what they could achieve and help others achieve.
Ex nihilo nihil fit.
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.)
He said flashing his 4 digit UID. Oi you, get off my lawn.
Deleted
FriendsReunited is a school reunion site, or probably a Web 2.0 social networking paradigm. I can only think of about 1 person in my high school class that isn't listed, it's got phenomenal scope. Unfortunately they started charging to contact people, and quite honestly i dont care that much about contacting old friends... after all I lost contact with them for good reason.
OTOH easyjet are huge. I'm not sure how you could miss them, they pretty much changed the european airline industry.
I thought it was actually a fairly good list. Considering i've used almost every one of those sites, and at least half of them would be in my personal top 10.
How come Slashdot is only listed once?
It does little good to have an Internet if there are no reasons to use it. Several of the sites in their list would qualify as "killer apps," causing someone to buy a PC and hook it up to the Internet where they otherwise wouldn't have done so.
Please can people stop saying this! The Guardian is a UK newspaper, the list is a bit eurocentric. EasyJet are MASSIVE and have most definitely changed the way people fly in Europe. Do some research before posting your American-centric drivel.
Anonymous Web BBS, both born from the original 2ch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2channel
/. with some 50,000 posts daily. 4chan saw hundreds of fans at the recent Otakon conference. Not world changing, but easily more popular than the lower ranks on this list. From 4chan has come Onechan, WTFux, fChan, not4chan, iichan, 420chan...
2chan is a Japanese offshoot, while 4chan is the English language board (started by SA goons). 4chan alone has more comment traffic than
My problem with spontaneous human combustion is that never seems to happen to the "right" people.
From Wikipedia:
Upon reopening on June 3, 2006, its number of visitors has doubled, the increased popularity attributed to greater exposure through the recent media coverage. This has in turn increased the advertisement revenues to the founders Gottfrid Svartholm and Fredrik Neij. The advertisements now generate about 75,000 USD per month according to speculations by Swedish newspaper SvD.
I guess you could call that "sticking it to the man." You could also call it profiting. Perhaps a bit less Robin Hood and a bit more ticket scalper.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
www.rodeogirlsinbondage.com
OK, maybe it didn't change, like, the WHOLE world, but it sure rocked mine.
I definitely recognize EasyJet, though I question it's status as "world-changing," particularly a "world changing website." As for FriendsReunited - who? I'd also argue against Napster - it was the Napster program and service that possibly had a "world-changing" impact, not so much the website itself.
.com TLD registrar.
As for what they missed -
1) Hotmail, of course. It's really lame now, but it really was one of the catalysts for people adopting email en masse.
2) CNN.com - I mean, just think back to 9/11/01. Many people didn't turn to TV for news, they went to CNN.com (as well as MSNBC.com and a host of other news sites, admittedly, but CNN.com was probably most prominent that day).
3) NetworkSolutions.com, just because for a long time, they were the ONLY
Phrases like "the music swapping website kazza" are all two frequent in the media. I find this really depressing because it highlights the general lack of understanding of technologies which the authors then proceed to make value judgements about.
Most of this is old news to Slashdotters, but just in case a "journalist" reads this post (yeh, right):
When anyone calls Napster a "website", they quickly expose that they have no experience with the software they are talking about.
Eh, got that off my chest, despite being a bit OT
It showed how you could make a successful news web site by shamelessly stealing stories from other websites and without even carrying out the most basic form of editing. Slashdot is probably more widely read than any other geek news outlet, including all those that have their own reporters and editors. Demonstrating that you can run a news web site without what were previously perceived to be two of the key ingredients of a news outlet has significantly changed the news reporting landscape.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
I mostly agree with them.
I have never been on napster.com, but I see why it made the list.
I have never heard of either "blogger.com" or "friendsreunited.com"
slashdot.org - Yay!
salon.com - What? How did this crappy website change the world?
google.com - Duh.. Why isn't this number 1?
yahoo.com - Really? Yahoo?
15. easyjet.com (Budget airline) -- And out of nowhere. Easyjet? Man, I love Easyjet. I fly them everywhere I can. But I don't see how they changed the world or even influenced any other sites very much. This was a really wierd one to be on this list.
-- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
For funny, way back when (mid-90's or so) I worked for IXA (now part of Savvis) as a network engineer. There were 2 of us, me and Nikos Moaut (or however you spell his name)
Anyhow, we were the uplink for Amazon and I had to deal with them quite often. One day I asked Nik what "Amazon" was and he told me it was a book store.
I told him it was a really stupid name for a bookstore. Shows what I knew.
Another "my take":
1. eBay.com - PayPal is actually the site that made eBay what it is today. If it wasn't for PayPals payment format people would be very suspect of eBay and fraud would be in the double digit percentile
2. wikipedia.com - Come back in about three years and we'll see. It's neat, it has potential, it's not ready for prime time.
3. napster.com - The site was worthless. If you want to list internet software, sure. At that rate include AIM.
4. youtube.com - This is today's stir. Much like wikipedia, wait a few years and see what's left.
5. blogger.com - Shrug. Blogging is neat for the author but for the most part 99% of them are fodder and rightfully so.
6. friendsreunited.com (School reunion site) - Perhaps. I don't know this one well but if it's anything like Classmates.com it should be listed as an annoyance.
7. drudgereport.com (News site) - "I'll compile links to other news sources and occasionally throw in my own 2 cents". Sounds like a blog.
8. myspace.com - What? Only because it's getting press. It's this years Geocities. In time it will go the way of geocities as well.
9. amazon.com - First webstore to turn a profit, finally a really insightful pick. Amazon has endurance and a great business model that most other larger retailers are trying to rip off.
10. slashdot.org - It's kind of like drudge on technology with a forum. Obviously I visit the site but it's a shell of what it use to be.
11. salon.com (Online magazine and media company) - I have never seen anything truly redeeming on salon that hasn't appeared elsewhere.
12. craigslist.org (A centralised network of online urban communities) - Yeah, fine. Probably more known for all the wrong reasons.
13. google.com (Popular search engine) - Unless Google starts really bringing more to the masses and doesn't let us down on the same level as the Segway did I don't think it will matter much over time. What google does have going for it is it's popularity today.
14. yahoo.com - See #13, think the same thoughts about 5 years ago.
15. easyjet.com (Budget airline) - Give me one good reason.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
Yeah, Geocities. A lot of people made their first (crappy) webpage there and got their feet wet that way.
I think the list is pretty good, but it is missing what got the web started in large part, porn. I don't mean to be a troll, but early in the web's commercial development porn was a big fraction of the business, perhaps a third of the web. I do not know if there is a single pioneering porn website that could be listed with the likes of eBay, Yahoo, and craigslist, but porn's role should not be forgotten.
P.S. I think Yahoo should be ranked higher. Yahoo was a leader in searching and portalness. Mapquest.com also maybe should have made the list over say Salon.com or easyjet.com
I can't believe Sex.com isn't on that list !
When's the last time anyone was paid $14 million For Sex ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Those guys are apparently too clueless to realize that Wikipedia, a noncommercial project, is quite properly at wikipedia.org, not ".com" as they listed it. (They did, however, correctly note Slashdot and Craigslist as .org sites, so they apparently aren't quite totally dot-com zombies who are unaware of any other top level domain.)
--Dan
Web Tips
Hope this story does not create a sudden rush of vistitors to slashdot, so many so that the site goes down and create a name for that phenomenon ;-)
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
But when it melts server after server, it is surely changing insurance quotes
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
hamsterdance.com
Seriously, time-wasting and silly forwards are a huge part of the Internet. Sure, youtube is listed, but the article emphasizes the usefulness, not the uselessness. The Internet is not such a serious place, after all.
and on a philosophical note:
.even if it was only to rant to baffled friends about this newfangled CSS thing . . .
.leaving us at least one fewer thing to get in the way of, well . . . normal relations . .
.. )
- we got time to do stuff in the real world whilst out little modems crackled away . .
- our girlfriends & family didn't (on the whole) care for the intarweb and so we didn't have to run about cleaning windows sypware, lest we be accused of evil voodoo for sitting near their machine . .
- world + dog didn't call asking for a myspace / bebo type site thinking they could host it on a virtual account for $20pcm. They did of course want flash animations *everywhere* but that could be fixed by handing the nearest pre-teen a graphics tablet or, if a deadline, drinking waaay too much the night before setting the design . . .
- right up until they got into the advertising game, we could believe Google's altruistic mantra . .
- "thin edge" or highly targeted media sounded a really good thing (at least it did if you worked in print publishing), and being cocooned in a geek world, (or pre - AOL joining the fun) we could still believe - just a bit - that shock jocks, neo-nazis, political wierdos of all kinds might not turn the whole game into a ego-stroking cacophony muffled only by commercial interest plays & lawsuits, and yet more recently internet aware (as opposed to savvy) special interest pressure groups.
- we gave our old (working) crap to charity rather than spending a week answering questions already answered in 72pt bold typeface on an ebay listing. (and corrolary i wonder if we didn't accumulate less crap, because we couldn't flip a ill advised purchase on ebay
- last (well not last, but before i start asking "does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?") only a few of us ever had to debate copyright and trademark law in earnest - and they actually got paid for it. Added because i still see no horizon for such concerns actually becoming a voting issue.
How come Slashdot is only listed once?
It was ABOUT Slashdot, not ON Slashdot. otherwise there would have been the obligatory dupe, listing them twice.
http://outcampaign.org/