CXO

Tech history in photos: The heroes who shaped the internet

By // May 2, 2014, 6:58 AM PST // connerforrest

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  • Tim Berners-Lee

    Many innovators have played a role in making the internet what it is today. Here are 10 people who might not have built the internet, but they helped shape the modern internet experience.

    Tim Berners-Lee is known as the inventor of the world wide web. He is credited with accomplishing the first successful use of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the basis for data communication on the web.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Paul Clarke

  • Marc Andreesen

    Andreesen helped create Mosaic, which is largely regarded as the web browser that first helped popularize the web. He later helped develop the Netscape Navigator web browser, which dominated browser market as the web skyrocketed into mainstream use in the 1990s.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Joi Ito

  • Vint Cerf

    Alongside Bob Kahn, Cerf is known as one of the founding fathers of the internet. His work at DARPA helped with the development of TCP/IP technology and he also helped develop MCI mail, one of the first internet-connect email systems. He is also considered instrumental in the founding of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Veni Markovski

  • Robert "Bob" Kahn

    Like his colleague Vint Cerf, Kahn is considered one of the founding fathers of the internet. He worked alongside Cerf to help develop TCP/IP technology and he later went on to found the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), a non-profit focused on network technologies.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Veni Markovski

  • Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin

    Brin and Page started Google as a research project when they were students at Stanford University. Google's search algorithm forever changed the way users look for information online. Today, Google.com is virtually the web's default homepage.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Joi Ito

  • Jim Kimsey

    Kimsey was the founder and CEO of the ISP AOL. As the internet grew in popularity in the 1990s, AOL was one of the most popular service providers, one time boasting around 10 million users. AOL helped popularize internet chat, instant messaging, and the customized home page.

    Image: Institute of World Politics

  • Hedy Lamarr

    Lamarr was an Austrian actress popular from the 1930s to the 1950s. She was also an inventor and, along with George Antheil, developed a technique for frequency hopping that paved the way for the modern wireless internet.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/MGM

  • Jeff Bezos

    Bezos, chairman and CEO of Amazon, helped drive the growth of e-commerce and internet retail. Amazon helped users to trust the online purchase process and was the foundation of the idea that you can buy anything on the internet.

    Image: CNET

  • Ray Tomlinson (left)

    Tomlinson helped create an email system for use on the ARPANET in the 1970s. He is believed to be the first person to ever use the "@" symbol to separate user from machine in an email address.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Andreu Veà, WiWiW.org

  • Elon Musk

    Elon Musk (center) was the head of the finance site X.com when it acquired Confinity, a company founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, Luke Nosek, and Ken Howery. After the acquisition the team developed PayPal, which has become one of the most widely-used internet payment services.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons/Bill Ingalls

  • Al Gore (Honorable Mention)

    He invented the internet, right?...

    Image: Public Domain

Tim Berners-Lee

Many innovators have played a role in making the internet what it is today. Here are 10 people who might not have built the internet, but they helped shape the modern internet experience.

Tim Berners-Lee is known as the inventor of the world wide web. He is credited with accomplishing the first successful use of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), the basis for data communication on the web.

Image: Wikimedia Commons/Paul Clarke

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By Conner Forrest

Conner Forrest is a Senior Editor for TechRepublic. He covers enterprise technology and is interested in the convergence of tech and culture.