People Who've Shaped The Internet

When you turn on your machine in the morning, you probably remember something like 'Kolaveri Di' that's making noise all around and end up heading over to Google to find and download it. Here's the story of the Google boys.

Google: Larry Page & Sergey Brin

Such is the strength of this brand that 'googling' has become synonymous for searching on the Web. Larry Page and Sergey Brin together known as 'Google Boys' jointly formed Google in 1998 while working on SDLP (Stanford Digital Library Project) at Stanford. The aim of SDLP was to formulate a single integrated and universal digital library, and while working on this project Larry Page considered mathematical properties of World Wide Web and understanding its link structure which eventually led to Google Beta.Page holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the University of Michigan with honors and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Stanford University. While at the University of Michigan, "Page created an inkjet printer made of Lego bricks".

Brin was born in Moscow but when he was six, his family felt compelled to immigrate to the US. His father, a professor in the deptt of Mathematics at the University of Maryland, nurtured his interest in Mathematics. In September 1990, Brin enrolled in the University of Maryland to study Computer Science and Mathematics, where he received his Bachelor of Science in May 1993 with honors. Brin began his graduate study in Computer Science at Stanford University.

'Send me a friend request', Poke, 'Like me'... all these have become an integral part of our modern day conversation. Facebook, the social media site that is used by millions worldwide has changed how we socialize.

Facebook : Mark Zuckerberg

If search is to Google then socialize is to Facebook. So strong are the numbers associated with this social media site that it has affected about a billion lives' on earth. Zuckerberg began using computers and writing software as a child in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the 1990s, and later hired software developer David Newman to tutor him privately. He enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. In one such program, since his father's dental practice was done from their home, he built a software program called "ZuckNet," which allowed all computers between the house and dental office to communicate by pinging each other. During Zuckerberg's high school years, under the company name Intelligent Media Group, he built a music player called the Synapse Media Player that used artificial intelligence to learn the user's listening habits, which was posted to Slashdot and received a rating of 3 out of 5 from PC Magazine. Microsoft and AOL tried to purchase Synapse and recruit Zuckerberg, but he chose instead to enroll at Harvard University in September 2002. He created a different program called Facemash that lets students select the best looking person from a choice of photos. Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room on February 4, 2004. Today, it has more than 800 million active users.

'Let's tweet about', 'what is trending' these phrases might not have made any sense few years back. So strong is this channel of communication that there are people we have become tweet addictive. But how many of us know about Jack Dorsey.

Twitter: Jack Dorsey

It is fascinating to know that Twitter's origin lies in a "daylong brainstorming session" held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Dorsey had the idea for a Web-based real-time status/short message communication service which later became Twitter. Dorsey grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and by age 13, he had become interested in dispatch routing. Some of the open source software he created in the area of dispatch logistics is still used by many taxi cab companies. When he first saw implementations of instant messaging, Dorsey had wondered if the software's user status output could be shared among friends easily. He approached Odeo, who at the time happened to be interested in text messaging. Dorsey introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group. Dorsey and Biz Stone decided that SMS text suited the status message idea, and built a prototype of Twitter in about two weeks. The idea attracted many users at Odeo and investment from Evan Williams who had left Google after selling them Pyra Labs and Blogger. Today twitter has more than 300 million active users generating 300 million tweets and about 1.6 billion search queries in a day.

The word 'Encyclopedia' has been replaced by 'Wikipedia' in our vocabulary. This change is because of shear presence of the world's most popular online reference site. We all 'wiki' about things we want to know more about.

Wikipedia: Jimmy Wales

Jimmy Wales, born in Huntsville, Alabama is an American Internet entrepreneur best known as a co-founder and promoter of the online non-profit encyclopedia Wikipedia and the Wikia company. He received his bachelor's degree in finance from Auburn University. Wales then entered the Ph.D. finance program at the University of Alabama. During his graduation, he taught at two universities, but left before completing his Ph.D. in order to take a job in finance and later worked as the research director of a Chicago futures and options firm. In 1996, he and two partners founded Bomis, a male-oriented web portal featuring entertainment and adult content. Jimmy Wales with Larry Sanger and others launched Wikipedia in 2001 and Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) in 2003, a non-profit organization in St. Petersburg, Florida. Wales was listed in the "Scientists & Thinkers" section of the Time 100 in 2006 and number 12 in Forbes "The Web Celebs 25". Currently Wales is a member of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the advisory board of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence, the Board of Directors at nCreative Commons, Socialtext, and Hunch.com, and former co-chair of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2008.

If Facebook lets you make friends how about a social media site that lets you get your dream job. LinkedIn gives us channel to talk about your area of your work or area you are interested in. 116 million people are registered for the service and the network grows by about 2 people every second globally.

LinkedIn: Reid Hoffman

Reid G. Hoffman, born in Stanford, California, is an American entrepreneur. Hoffman is best known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching. To earn name and fame Hoffman pursued a career in business and entrepreneurship. He started working at Apple and Fujitsu in product management. After working there, Hoffman co-founded his first company, SocialNet.com, an online dating service. While at SocialNet, Hoffman was a member of the board of directors at the founding of PayPal. At the time of PayPal's acquisition by eBay in 2002, he was Executive Vice President of PayPal. Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in December 2002. It was one of the first business-oriented online social networks. He was LinkedIn's founding CEO for the first four years before becoming Chairman and President, Products in February 2007. Currently he is Executive Chairman. LinkedIn currently has 100 million members in over 200 countries. In 2010 Hoffman joined Greylock Partners and runs their $20 million Discovery Fund. He serves as a Partner at Greylock Partners and Greylock Discovery Fund and his areas of focus includes consumer and services, enterprise software, consumer Internet, enterprise 2.0, mobile, social gaming, online marketplaces, payments, and social networks.

How many times have you purchased something online? If never then probably you shall do it in the near future. This idea was first implemented by the man behind Amazon.com

Amazon.com: Jeff Bezos

Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 after making a cross-country drive from New York to Seattle, writing up the Amazon business plan on the way. He initially set up the company in his garage. Amazon eventually made him one of the most prominent dot com entrepreneurs and a billionaire. In process of setting up Amazon.com, Bezos rewrote the rule of the market economy and capital markets. He had impeccable credentials before he started out with Amazon, and having been in investment business himself probably eased the way for him.

If Amazon started it, eBay came up with the idea that resulted in one of the most popular and successful website and a source of inspiration for a number of similar sites.

eBay: Pierre Omidyar

The Internet super brand was the result of a effort over weekend by Omidyar when he was just 28 and wrote computer code that eventually resulted in eBay. The site was launched on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, 1995, as "Auction Web". It was hosted on a site Omidyar had created for information on the ebola virus. Even the name 'eBay' was made up on the fly by Omidyar when he was told that his first choice for his web site, 'echobay,' had already been registered. Before eBay in 1991 Omidyar also co-founded Ink Development, a pen-based computing startup that was later rebranded as an e-commerce company.

Of all the video sharing sites no one has ever come close to YouTube; but do you know that this site, we visit more often than not, has connections to PayPal.

You Tube

The domain name www.youtube.com was activated on February 14, 2005, and the website was developed over the subsequent months. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for US$1.65 billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Google.

Jawed Karim

YouTube's first video, 'Me at the zoo', was uploaded by Karim on April 23, 2005. Karim enrolled as a graduate student in Computer Science at Stanford University while acting as an advisor to YouTube. Before YouTube many of the core components of PayPal, including its real-time anti-fraud system, were also designed and implemented by Karim.

Chad Hurley

Hurley was primarily responsible for the tagging and video sharing aspects of YouTube and became Chief Executive Officer of this popular video sharing website. Before PayPal Hurley worked in eBay's PayPal division, where one of his tasks involved designing the original PayPal logo.

Steve Chen

Chen was also an early employee at Facebook, although he left after several months to start YouTube. He has previously held the position of Chief Technology Officer at YouTube, and is currently employed by Google.