Internet History Podcast

117. Founder of Friendster and Nuzzel, Jonathan Abrams

18 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Abrams was the founder of the first modern social networking site, Friendster. This is essentially the story of the birth of social media… ...

116. Director of the Documentary Silicon Cowboys ( @Silicon_Cowboys ) Jason Cohen

12 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

If you'll remember a few years ago I spoke with Rod Canion about how Compaq created the industry standard computer platform that finally supplanted I...

115. Mike Slade on 80s Microsoft, NeXT, Starwave and Steve Jobs' Return to Apple

05 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

I originally wanted to talk to Mike Slade about Starwave, the innovative company that launched some major names onto the web, including ESPN.com, ABCN...

114. Douglas Colbeth, CEO of Spyglass

28 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

We've spoken a lot on this show about Netscape and the "Browser Wars," but there's a key angle to this story that we haven't had the chance to delve i...

113. Joel Johnson on Gawker and the Rise of Professional Blogging

08 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryJoel Johnson has spent nearly his entire professional career, working in digital media. He went from being an anonymous online commenter to bei...

112. Inventor of the First Digital Camera, Steven Sasson

01 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummarySteve Sasson was the inventor of the world's first digital camera. Because it's hard to imagine modern life without digital photography, i...

Announcing the Podcast Book!

25 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Quick, special announcement of a book, based on the podcast, coming from Liveright (W.W. Norton) in 2018. Regular episode to come next monday... Hoste...

111. CompuServe Founder Jeff Wilkins

05 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryJeff Wilkins was the co-founder and first CEO of CompuServe, perhaps the original consumer online service. Jeff recounts for us CompuServe's fo...

110. Hunter Walk Talks Second Life, Google Adsense and YouTube

12 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Special Note: We’re testing something new this week. You can read a full transcription of this episode here.Everyone’s favorite, friendly neighbor...

109. The History of Sierra Online with Laine Nooney

05 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryKen and Roberta Williams were the founders of the legendary PC gaming company Sierra Online. Assistant Professor of Digital Media in the S...

108. BabyCenter.com Founders Mark Selcow and Matt Glickman

30 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Selcow and Matt Glickman were the founders of BabyCenter.com. The story of BabyCenter is a combination of several themes we've discussed on this ...

107. Founder of Marketwatch, Larry Kramer @lkramer

22 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryLarry Kramer was the founder of MarketWatch.com. He’s also been the President and Publisher of USA Today and he’s currently interim CEO of ...

106. Co-Founder of Tesla, Marc Tarpenning

15 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryMarc Tarpenning, along with Martin Eberhard, was the cofounder of Tesla Motors back in 2003. But before that, Tarpenning and Eberhard were also...

105. Tom Rielly, Founder of PlanetOut

09 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryTom Rielly was the founder of PlanetOut, the largest LGBT website and community of the 1990s. Tom recounts the unique impact the web and online...

104. Suck Again! Joey Anuff And Carl Steadman Return!

02 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryWhat more do I need to say? Joey and Carl are back for round two.You can visit the Suck archives here.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/pri...

103. Rafat Ali @rafat of PaidContent and Skift

25 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryI can't be sure about this exactly, but I would hazard to say Rafat Ali is possibly patient zero when it comes to taking a blog and t...

102. Analysis Ep. 5 - The History and Future of Automotive Tech with Mike Dushane

10 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

I know it’s a bit beyond our usual chronology of 90s-era technology, but car tech has come up so much in recent episodes, that I thought it was high...

101. Matt Kursh on Pen Computing, Sidewalk and MSN

21 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryMatt Kursh was a part of the pre-web Silicon Valley frenzy for pen computing that we’ve spoken about several times on this show. Matt is kind...

100. The Man Who Could Have Been Bill Gates? The Gary Kildall Story

13 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryTo celebrate our 100th episode, we’re taking a special look at one of the foundational legends of the technology industry. It’s about the m...

99. Founders of Suck.com, Carl Steadman and Joey Anuff

28 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryCarl Steadman and Joey Anuff were the founders of perhaps the most influential of the early web content sites, Suck.com. If you’re unfam...

98. Rob Lord, Founder of the Internet Underground Music Archive

24 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryRob Lord was the founder of the Internet Underground Music Archive all the way back in 1993. This would become the first website devoted to the...

97. Chris Fralic @chrisfralic Discusses Half.com and Del.icio.us

14 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryMost of you will know Chris Fralic as a partner in the VC firm First Round Capital, here in New York City. But Chris was also heavily involved ...

96. The First "Web" Cam With Quentin Stafford-Fraser

08 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryI wanted to speak to Quentin Stafford-Fraser because he was involved in the first “web” cam. I say “web” in quotes because, it wasn’t...

95. Pathfinder Executive Paul Sagan

01 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryPaul Sagan has had a long and illustrious career, which includes: 1) stints working on the Full Service Network, that interactive tv initi...

94. Founder of the First Dorm Room Dot Com, Tripod's Bo Peabody

10 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

There's a certain romance surrounding dorm room startups. From Microsoft, to Dell, to Facebook, there's something about the audacity of building a com...

93. (Misc 4) Minitel, the French Internet That Came Before the Web

03 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryToday we’re going to talk a bit about alternate Internets. In previous episodes, we have outlined how, going back to the 1970s and 80s, early...

92. Founder of the World's First Commercial Website, Dale Dougherty

14 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryDale Dougherty was the organizer of the world’s first ever web developers conference, the World Wide Web Wizards Workshop in July of 199...

91. Co-Founder of Feed Magazine, Stefanie Syman

07 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryIf you'll remember in Episode 32, we explored the early digital media startups like Salon, Slate, Suck, Pathfinder, etc. One site that was ment...

90. CEO of MapQuest, Barry Glick, Discusses the History and Future of Location Tech

20 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryI don't think very many people, twenty years ago, would have imagined that maps, location technology and the like would prove to be so strategi...

89. How Tom Hadfield Founded Soccernet At Age 13

09 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryTom Hadfield was the founder of Soccernet, which is still the premiere soccer (football!) website in the world. But just as the title says, Tom...

88. How Microsoft Went Online, With Brad Silverberg

02 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:In the early 1990s, Brad Silverberg was one of the key champions of the Internet within Microsoft. As the first ever Senior Vice President of ...

87. Tim DeMello Talks Home Delivery Startups

26 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:One of the big trends of recent years in the tech space has been the rise of delivery startups like Instacart and Postmates and the like. In a...

86. Martin Nisenholtz on Bringing the New York Times Online

19 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Martin Nisenholtz is a digital media pioneer. He founded perhaps the first digital marketing group at Olgilvy and Mather all the way back in 1983. But...

85. Evan Kirstel @evankirstel Discusses The Wireless Industry and Broadband

12 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Listen:Evan Kirstel is a 20 year veteran of the wireless, broadband, cloud and social space. He is also absolutely the number one person to follow on ...

84. Analysis Ep. 4 "Clutching Pearls" With Chris Higgins

05 Oct 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Chris Higgins is back! In this very fun episode we talk about Windows 95, command line computing, who is the Microsoft of tech today and how t...

83. Founder of Travelocity, Terry Jones

27 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Terry Jones was the founder and CEO of Travelocity. Perhaps the primary pioneer in the online travel space, Terry explains the unique challeng...

82. (Ch. 7.4) eBay Wins the Auction Wars

21 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Part 2 of eBay’s founding story. How, why and when eBay became the undisputed king of the online auction space.Bibliography: The Perfec...

81. Founder of WebCal and "Turbo Yahoo" Bruce Spector

15 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Bruce Spector is another early web entrepreneur whose company would be acquired during the dotcom era. In this case, the company was WebC...

80. Founder of CBS Sportsline Mike Levy

07 Sep 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:There was a time, early on in the web era, where things were very much wide open. An entrepreneur could survey the scene and say, "No one has ...

79. Glenn Fleishman @GlennF Returns!

30 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Glenn Fleishman is back to talk more about Amazon's founding mythologies, the recent controversies surrounding Amazon's work culture, and the ...

78. Yahoo's Master Brand Builder, Karen Edwards

24 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Most people agree that Yahoo the king of the dot-com-era search sites on the strength of its zany, friendly, ubiquitous brand. The woman ...

77. Narendra Rocherolle @narendra of Webshots and 30 Boxes

17 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:How did we get from a place where people were completely skeptical of living their personal lives online to the "share everything" society we ...

76. Steve Goldberg of Microsoft and the IAB

03 Aug 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Steve Goldberg was the first hire for Microsoft's Advertising division. He was present at the launch of such projects as MSNBC,...

75. The Development of Consumer Broadband with Intel's Avram Miller

27 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Avram Miller was the co-founder of Intel Capital, and during the 90s, racked up some of the greatest venture fund successes of all time, backi...

74. Developer of Winamp, Justin Frankel

20 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:A conversation with Justin Frankel, creator of the Winamp application, which was arguably the software package responsible for popularizing th...

73. "Father" of the MP3, Karlheinz Brandenburg

14 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

This is the story of MP3, the technology that (revolutionized? upended? destroyed? transformed?) changed music forever. It is also a conversation with...

72. Owen Thomas Returns!

06 Jul 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Owen Thomas is back on the show for another analysis episode, helping us establish the context for the dot-com era. You can listen t...

71. Founder of Quote.com, Chris Cooper

28 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Get ready for one of the most fascinating entrepreneurial stories we've covered thus far on the show. Chris Cooper was the founder of Quo...

70. The Forgotten Story Of The Original IPhone Released In 1998

22 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

It turns out that almost exactly 9 years before Steve Jobs introduced the world to the iPhone, there was another 3-in-1 device that was introduced to ...

69. Steve Yelvington Discusses Newspapers and the Early Web

15 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Today we’re going to go a bit backwards in our timeline, back to some of the issues we covered in our Chapter 5 episodes. All of t...

68. Founder of When.com, Ted Barnett

08 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:So far in our project, we've mostly spoken to people who were involved in startups that went public in the dot com era. But as I've said many ...

67. Journalist Maggie Mahar Discusses the Dot-Com Bubble

01 Jun 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Maggie Mahar is an award-winning journalist who has written for Money magazine, Institutional Investor, the New York Times, Bloomberg, and in ...

66. (Ch. 7.3) The Founding of eBay

25 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

...or, to be more strictly accurate, this episode covers the founding of AuctionWeb, the site that would become eBay. How Pierre Omidyar founded a com...

65. The "Book Club" Episode

18 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet, by Katie HafnerThe Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created th...

64. Geocities Founder David Bohnett

11 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:We continue our survey of the pioneering social/community sites by sitting down with David Bohnett, who, along with John Rezner, founded ...

63. TheGlobe Co-Founder Todd Krizelman

04 May 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:One of the biggest names of the dot-com era was TheGlobe.com. It had one of the most successful and storied IPO's of it's day, and it was lead...

62. iVillage Co-Founder Nancy Evans

27 Apr 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Nancy Evans and Candice Carpenter founded iVillage in the mid 1990s. iVillage was one of the first community-focused sites on the early w...

61. (Ch 7.2) Amazon's Dominance of eCommerce

19 Apr 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:It’s part two of our Amazon founding story. How did Amazon come to completely dominate e-commerce? How did Jeff Bezos’ “Get Big Fast” ...

60. Early eBay Executive (And Future California Governor?) Steve Westly

13 Apr 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:If you are a Californian, then you might know Steve Westly's name very well. After all, in the mid 2000s, Westly was elected Controller of Cal...

59. Early Amazon Engineer and Co-Developer of the Recommendation Engine, Greg Linden

05 Apr 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:As you know, we’ve been trying to cover from every angle, the innovations that ecommerce sites in general, and Amazon.com specifically, brou...

58. Robert Levitan of iVillage and Flooz

30 Mar 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Robert Levitan has been involved in many pioneering tech companies. The two that I wanted to focus on were iVillage, one of the early web comm...

57. (I Lied) The Special Requests Episode

23 Mar 2015

Contributed by Lukas

I lied about there not being a show this week. Except, it's not a show. It's more of a state-of-the-podcast address, celebrating (belatedly) our one y...

56. Infoseek Founder (and Inventor of the Optical Mouse) Steve Kirsch

16 Mar 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Steve Kirsch is one of the most fascinating entrepreneurs we’ve been lucky enough to speak to on this show. Going back to the 1980s, he was ...

55. The Watershed Year of 1995 with W. Joseph Campbell

09 Mar 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:W. Joseph Campbell is a Professor in the School of Communication at American University. He is the author of six nonfiction books, including&n...

54. CDNow CEO Michael Krupit

02 Mar 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Michael Krupit first joined CDNow as the Chief Technology officer. He soon took over COO duties, and eventually rose to become CEO of the...

53. Match.com and Sex.com Founder Gary Kremen

23 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Gary Kremen is another early internet legend. Kremen was one of the first people to recognize the opportunity that the Internet presented in t...

52. (Ch 7.1) The Birth of Amazon.com

16 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Finally, the long-promised foray into e-commerce, starting with… not the first… but practically the first… player in the space… a...

51. Glenn Fleishman @GlennF Discusses Early Amazon

09 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:You may know Glenn Fleishman from a bunch of things. He has written for Wired, Fortune, Popular Science, The New York Times, and PCWorld, and ...

50. Amazon's Technical Co-Founder and Employee #1, Shel Kaphan

01 Feb 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Shel Kaphan was the very first person hired by Jeff Bezos to launch Amazon.com. A lot of people consider Shel to be a co-founder in all but na...

49. Lycos Founder and CEO Bob Davis @BobDavisHCP

26 Jan 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Bob Davis was not only the founder of the search engine/web portal known as Lycos, he was also the CEO, first employee, and for a time, the ON...

48. Amazon Director, Customer Service Strategy, Jane Slade

19 Jan 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Jane Slade joined Amazon.com's nascent customer service team when it was a couple of people, some computers, and one phone line. Over the comi...

47. Analysis Episode with Christina Warren of Mashable.com @film_girl

12 Jan 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Christina Warren is the Senior Tech Analyst for Mashable.com. She came on the podcast to talk with me about Amazon’s place in the tech ...

46. (Ch 6) A History of Internet Porn

04 Jan 2015

Contributed by Lukas

So, I ran across this quote from Star Trek television producer Rick Berman. He said, “Without porn and Star Trek, there would be no Internet.” Tha...

45. Excite Co-Founder Ryan McIntyre

15 Dec 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Ryan McIntyre, along with his fellow Stanford classmates (Graham Spencer, Joe Kraus, Mark Van Haren, Ben Lutch and Martin Reinfried) was one of t...

44. The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin, Co-Founder of Akamai Technologies

08 Dec 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:On HBO, the show Silicon Valley is about a young kid who comes up with a billion-dollar algorithm and attempts to build a company around the t...

43. Danny Sullivan @dannysullivan on the History and Future of Search

01 Dec 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Danny Sullivan is generally acknowledged as THE expert on the search industry (www.searchengineland.com). Danny first got his start covin...

42. (Misc 3) Did Al Gore Really Invent the Internet?

24 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

As you know, often on this podcast, I run across issues or tidbits from the past that don’t quite fit our overall narrative. But sometimes those tid...

41. Excite.com CEO George Bell

17 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:George Bell was the CEO of Excite.com, took that pioneering search engine public, and became the CEO of Excite@Home when he oversaw that major...

40. Microsoft and Internet Explorer Executive, Ben Slivka

10 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:I was absolutely thrilled that Ben Slivka agreed to come on the podcast with us. Obviously, we’ve had plenty of oral histories relating to N...

39. CNET Founder Halsey Minor

03 Nov 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Halsey Minor is an absolutely legend when it comes to the online era. Along with names like Jerry Yang, Jeff Bezos, Pierre Omidyar and ot...

38. An Oral History Of The Web's First Banner Ads

27 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

The first banner ads went live on the web 20 years ago today, October 27th, 1994, when the website HotWired.com first launched on the internet. W...

37. Wired Magazine Founding Editor John Battelle @johnbattelle

20 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Younger listeners might know John Battelle as being one of the original forces behind the Web 2.0 movement, as the founder of the Web 2.0 Summ...

36. Talking Early Online Services With Chris Higgins @chrishiggins

13 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Another conversation with writer and journalist Chris Higgins. We start up talking about the recent sad demise of the Magazine, a project...

35. Joe McCambley Discusses Advertising and the First Banner Ads

06 Oct 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Joe McCambley is one of the more prominent names in modern digital marketing and advertising. He's had major roles at Digitas, at AOL in it's ...

34. Owen Thomas of HotWired and Suck

29 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Owen Thomas is one of the most prominent voices in modern web media. He is currently the editor in chief of ReadWrite.com, but he was also the...

33. HotWired CEO Andrew Anker

22 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Soon after the founding of Wired Magazine, it was decided that Wired needed a major web presence. Andrew Anker was recruited to write a b...

32. (Ch 5.2) Wired, CNET, Slate, Salon and Suck

15 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:We continue our survey of early web media plays with some that have lasted the test of time and some that, while not currently extant, were la...

31. Real Networks Founder and CEO Rob Glaser

08 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Rob Glaser was, and is, the founder and CEO of Real Networks. If you were around in the 90s, you’ll remember Real Audio and Real Video and t...

30. (Misc 2) The NSA And The 1990s Debate Over the Clipper Chip

01 Sep 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:What the mid-1990's debate about the so-called "clipper chip" can teach us about our contemporary debates concerning NSA surveillance of the I...

29. Analysis Episode 1 With Chris Higgins @chrishiggins

25 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:A new kind of episode today. I sat down with writer, blogger and former programmer Chris Higgins to do a sort of anal...

28. Pathfinder Executive Oliver Knowlton

18 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Oliver Knowlton is another one of our Pathfinder.com alumni. He’s had a wide and varied career in media, from his role as the General M...

27. She Gave The World A Billion AOL CDs - An Interview With Marketing Legend Jan Brandt

11 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Jan Brandt is a legend in the world of marketing. She singlehandedly led the famous AOL "carpet-bombing" campaign that put millions of AOL tri...

26. Head of Time New Media Executive Linda McCutcheon

04 Aug 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Linda McCutcheon is another Pathfinder veteran. She came up through Time Inc. on the marketing side, so she was the one responsible for landin...

25. Pathfinder Editorial Executive Craig Bromberg

28 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Craig Bromberg has had a long and fascinating career at the intersection of media and technology. An early adopter of online technologies, Cra...

24. (Ch 5.1) Mercury Center and Pathfinder - Big Media's Big Web Adventure

20 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:We’ve been looking at how companies were feeling their way into the internet era, trying to create new industries and new mediums without pr...

23. Co-Founder of FocaLink, Dave Zinman

14 Jul 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Today we have an interview with Dave Zinman, co-founder of FocaLink Media services, which, if you'll recall, developed the first remote ad ser...

22. Co-Founder of DoubleClick, Kevin O'Connor

23 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Kevin O’Connor is the co-founder of the granddaddy of all Internet advertising companies, DoubleClick. Chances are, if you’ve seen a banne...

21. Yahoo Employee #3, Tim Brady

16 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:When you talk about Yahoo, most people know the names Jerry Yang and David Filo. But if you talk to people who were there at the time, there i...

20. (Ch 4.2) How Yahoo Became The Web's First Great Company

09 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

Summary:Yahoo became the web’s first truly great company, and in this episode, we examine why. Turning to advertising as a business model, Yahoo was...

19. Co-Founder of Netgravity, John Danner

02 Jun 2014

Contributed by Lukas

SummaryThis is a wide ranging and fascinating interview with John Danner. John was the co-founder of another of the major internet advertising pi...