Technology and the web in the Noughties!

2000

March - the dotcom bubble bursts!
In the late Nineties, investors piled cash into internet start-ups, or dotcoms, hoping to profit from their success. Stock market valuations of internet firms soared until the bubble burst in March 2000 when the Nasdaq stock market index, dominated by technology companies, peaked at double its value a year before and then plummeted.

April - Metallica sues Napster
Heavy metal band Metallica sued music-sharing website Napster over copyright violations. The group, one of the world's biggest rock bands, was upset after identifying 335,000 music fans illegally sharing its tracks on Napster – sad but true.

May - I Love You email virus
The Love Bug worm, which infected millions of computers worldwide, arrived in our Inboxes with the romantic subject line: "ILOVEYOU' and an attachment called 'LOVELETTER'. Sadly – proving romance is dead – opening the file only led to the worm sending copies of the same email to everyone listed in a computer user's address book and making malicious changes to a PC's system.

2001

January - Wikipedia officially launched
If it wasn't for online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, we wouldn't be able to tell you the following information: "Wikipedia is a free web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopaedia project... it was launched in 2001 by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger and is currently the largest and most popular general reference work on the Internet." (source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia)

March - Web User launches!
The first issue of Web User magazine went on sale on 22 March at the same time as the launch of www.webuser.co.uk.

July - the Code Red worm attack
Thousands of computers were infected by Code Red, which exploited a hole in a Microsoft web server. One version of Code Red could plant a 'backdoor' in websites that hackers could use to access customer information. According to security company Sophos, the Code Red worm got its name from the Code Red cherry flavour of the Mountain Dew soft drink after one of the first experts to analyse the worm consumed large amounts of the drink while investigating the code.

October - Apple launches the iPod
When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod in 2001, he said: "To have your whole music library with you at all times, it's a quantum leap in listening to music." In 2009, the iPod is the world's most popular family of digital music players with over 220 million sold.

November - the first papal email
Pope John Paul II sent the first email from the Vatican to apologise to victims of sexual abuse by priests and other clergy.

2002

March - Friends Reunited celebrates weddings
Two couples claimed to be the first people to wed after rekindling friendships through the internet reunion service Friends Reunited.

August - Celebdaq launched
The BBC unveiled online celebrity stock market game Celebdaq, which lets players buy and sell shares in celebs, including pop stars, actors, TV presenters and royals, on a virtual stock market.

August - HMV unveils download service
UK music retailer HMV launched an online subscription service, offering over 100,000 songs from labels including EMI, Warner Music and BMG for a monthly fee of 4.99.

October - Freeview launched
Freeview, the digital television service, is launched by the BBC, Sky and transmitter company Crown Castle, as a replacement for ITV Digital, which collapsed owing to financial problems.

2003

May - the first flash mob
The first flash mob, when the internet is used to organise a crowd to meet up in a public place to partake in a random and obscure act, took place in Manhattan and the craze quickly spread. In August 2003, around 100 people gathered at the London Eye waving bananas clockwise in the air to celebrate the millennium wheel.

June - Second Life opens
In virtual world Second Life, you can use the Linden currency to buy, sell, rent or trade land or services with others. Tales of how people could make real money from Second Life started to emerge. A former teacher claimed to have become a millionaire thanks to Second Life.

December - Tim Berners-Lee is awarded a knighthood
It was 'Arise, Sir Tim' when the inventor of the world wide web Tim Berners-Lee was awarded a knighthood for services to the global development of the internet.

Prince Charles
The most-searched for term on Google in the UK in 2003 was Prince Charles. In this year, he issued a public denial of unpublished rumours involving the Prince's household. Those that hadn't heard the rumours, were quick on the march to Google to find out what they were...

2004

February - Facebook is founded
Mark Zuckerburg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin launch thefacebook.com while students at Harvard University. Its name changed to Facebook in 2005. It is now the largest social-networking site serving 300 million people worldwide (see our Facebook timeline).

February - Janet Jackson's breast
Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction during a half-time performance at the Super Bowl became one of the most-searched for events in the history of the internet. Janet's breast is also the most searched for image in Google history.

June - Cherie Blair shops on eBay
Cherie Blair made headline news when she bought a 99p Winnie the Pooh alarm clock for her youngest son Leo on online auction website eBay.

2005

February - YouTube is developed
Could you imagine a life without watching videos of Ninja Cat and Keyboard Cat? Until February 2005, video-sharing website YouTube didn't exist. Now more than one billion videos are watched every day on YouTube, bought by Google in November 2006.

June - Google Earth launches
Google unveiled its satellite imagery-based mapping tool, designed to let people "interactively explore the world-- either their own neighborhood or the far corners of the globe". Our guide to the best extras for Google Earth and Google Maps.

December - ITV buys Friends Reunited
Friends Reunited was bought by ITV in 2005 for 120m (plus a further 50m). In 2009, ITV sells it for 25m.

2006

Who is Borat?
The most searched-for "who is" term on Google in 2006 was "Who is Borat?"

May - UK domain registrations hit five million mark
The number of .uk domain registrations hit five million with the registration of Hosepipebanbuster.co.uk.

December - You are the person of the year!
'You' named as Time magazine's Person of the Year for the growth and influence of user-generated content - "community and collaboration seen on a scale never seen before".

Web User's Best of the Noughties Awards: VOTE NOW!

2007

November - Apple iPhone launches in the UK
The iPhone went on sale at 6.02pm in the UK on Friday 6 November - big news for those that wanted to control their mobile phone "with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers".

November - Amazon unveils its Kindle e-reader device
Amazon released its Kindle electronic book reader back in 2007 but only made it available to customers in the UK in October 2009. The device can hold over 1,500 books.

December - BBC iPlayer launched
BBC iPlayer, the BBC's TV and radio catch-up service, launched on Christmas Day. The service now receives more than 75 million requests per month for BBC TV and radio programmes.

December - Queen's Speech went online
The Queen's 2007 Christmas broadcast was available to watch on YouTube at 3pm on 25 December, the same time as the traditional broadcast on television.

2008

February - Microsoft tries to buy Yahoo
Microsoft proposed a $44.6bn (22.4bn) acquisition of Yahoo but it later withdrew its bid after Yahoo said it wanted more money. In July 2009, Microsoft and Yahoo unveiled a search partnership.

July 2008 - Apple App Store opens
Apple's App Store launched and within three days, iPhone and iPod Touch users had downloaded more than 10 million applications. There are now more than 100,000 individual apps available.

September - the Large Hadron Collider flop
The world's largest particle accelerator complex, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is turned on. Beams of protons and ions are sent around at a velocity approaching the speed of light. But just days later, the 5bn project was put out of action when helium leaked into the system.

2009

January - actor Ashton Kutcher hits a million
Ashton Kutcher became the first Twitter member to have a million followers. Kutcher, the husband of Demi Moore, photographed the actress while she was bending over in her underwear and shared it on Twitter, with an update that said: "shhh, don't tell wifey."

February - first Facebook divorce
A Lancashire woman found out her six-year marriage was over via a status update message on her husband's Facebook profile.

April - Susan Boyle becomes YouTube star
Footage of Britain's Got Talent contestant Susan Boyle became the most watched clip on YouTube. Susan's performance of I Dreamed A Dream proved more popular than footage of President Obama's inauguration speech.