What website changed the world?

[wwctw]

For an educational-project (non-commercial) iam trying to find out what website would have changed the world according you. After days i finally narrowed the sites to 10. My question to you is to http://www.freesurveysonline.com/fso/AskSurvey.fso?Survey=8786&CheckID=7797]click here[/URL] and choose the site that according you changed the world wide internet. Ofcoarse you can comment in this thread. Thank you very mutch!

Yahoo.com
One of the first searchengines directories on the internet. Known for it's incredible performance, speed and results in the early internetyears.

MSN.com
Mainly because of theire MSN-chat software. Internationally probably the most used piece of chatsoftware on earth.

Google.com
The most important searchengine ever made and currently the most used one. The best results and revolutiory easy so even new internetusers could find theire way easily. Google has grown with extra services such as: Google Adwords, News, Labs, Trends, Earth, maps, Gmail and many many more.

Youtube.com
The largest videosharing site on the web. When something happens in the world, youtube often has it. Everyone is a reporter. Some video's get millions of visitors and grow to international television, papers, and other established media.

Hotmail.com
It's hard to find someboy that didn't have an account with Hotmail. Hotmail made the concept of e-mailing grow. It was easy to set up, free and always available.

Wikipedia.com
Wikipedia is growing enormously. It's by far the largest encyclopedia in the world. Almost completely created and editted by volunteers.

E-bay.com
One of the first and certainly the largest site for buying and selling goods. Made the old paper advertisements almost vanish and ineffective. Visitors bid on products.

Amazon.com
One of the first and largest store on the internet. Almost everyone knows Amazon and almost everyone bought items on it.

IMDB.com
The largest movie database in the world. All the information about movies, actors, directors, trailers and so on. With a rankingsystem the visitor knows what he gets.

Alexa.com
Alexa created a map of the internet. What sites are visited the most, what sites are related, etc.

Since iam trying to create a map of the whole world, again non commercial, please spread the word

http://www.freesurveysonline.com/fso/AskSurvey.fso?Survey=8786&CheckID=7797]Vote[/URL]

 

[KillerCharlie]

You really think IMDB and Youtube changed the world? I guess you're just having trouble coming up with websites.

 

[FoBoT]

poll?

google.com

 

[lozina]

what, no anandtech?

 

[jlbenedict]

No websites "changed the world"

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: KillerCharlie
I guess you're just having trouble coming up with websites.

He also has trouble linking. However, he did get the avatar changed. So give this guy credit.

Welcome to Anandtech, wwtctw. However, with an alias that matches you one and only thread, you appear like you aren't intending to stay. Wait, I take that back, you posted in another thread.

I'd say on your list it would have to be Google. Not that Google really changed the world, but it probably has farther reaching effects than the other websites listed there.

 

[lokiju]

Google

/thread

 

[dainthomas]

Since google's in the dictionary, I'd have to say that.

For sheer coolness factor, definitely Anandtech.

 

[Whoozyerdaddy]

Much as I hate to say it, MySpace has had a bigger impact on people than most of the sites you listed. Alexa.com? Never even heard of that one.

 

[lozina]

Three of those websites' names have evolved into actual verbs used almost everyday in my environment: google, e-bay and wikipedia.

 

[FoBoT]

google has changed the world

without it, a large part of my job would be undoable

there is no way i could learn how to do stuff in the short amount of time i have from books or non-internet technology

 

[rgwalt]

What about AOL? I guess it is more than just a website, but if you are counting MSN for their chatware, when why not AOL for IM? I'd think that IM laps MSN Messenger.

Of the sites you listed, I'd say either Google or eBay, with Hotmail coming in third. Wikipedia and YouTube are too recent a phenomena to "change the world", but give them a few years.

IMDB is great, but not earth shaking. Yahoo had a profound impact by being one of the first search engines, but I don't think you can give them credit over some of the other early sites. Google was revolutionary because it was the best and remains the best, plus they are starting so many other services, and they are all solid, well programmed, and useful.

R

 

[coolVariable]

Google didn't change the world ... there were search engines before that. Altavista, excite, yahoo, .... and they worked perfectly fine for their time. Just because the kiddies weren't around before google ... jeez.


Alexa? Never heard before. Definitely didn't change the world.

I would rather say craigslist ... if that ever got cleaned up, it would kick ebays a$$ even more seriously.

 

[MBrown]

either ebay or google.

 

[jjones]

Google changed nothing, search was available long before Google joined the internet. If there was no Google at all, search would still be pretty much what it is today. For search, engines like Gopher (the first real internet search engine) and WebCrawler (the engine using the full text search model that all engines use today) had more to do with changing the world than Google.

Of those choices listed, Amazon and E-bay have probably had the largest effect. Online shopping and search in general has been what's changed the world most, IMO.

 

[maximus maximus]

My vote goes to ebay.

 

[theNEOone]

me thinks this is a plug to get exposure to this new place, alexa.com.


=|

 

[SaltBoy]

This list sucks.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Definitely not google. Google was evolutionary, not revolutionary. They didn't do anything new or unusual, they just took old ideas and made them better. Sans Google we'd still be searching the same way we do it now, just slightly less efficiently. Yahoo had more of an impact that Google does. They created what Google improved.

Let's face it, the web, despite it's noble intentions, is about money rather than the free exchange of information. People are shopping, talking and stealing copyrighted materials, they're not browsing the Louvre or exchanging recipes for chocolate chip cookies. As there are no websites know for chat and most copyrighted stuff is exchanged p2p or via usenet instead of a website, you have to narrow it down to shopping. THAT'S the only internet killer app that can be traced to a handful of sites. So I'd vote for Amazon and E-Bay.

 

[imported_LoKe]

EON8.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: theNEOone
me thinks this is a plug to get exposure to this new place, alexa.com.


=|

Yeah. Alexa is, like, brand new...

 

[Triumph]

ebay is about the only one that i'd agree "changed the world" (or rather, had an impact). MSN? no. Alexa? Who? YouTube? Probably going to be shut down for copyright infringement one of these days. You completely forgot about news sites. I don't know who created the first news website, CNN or NBC or whoever, but the ability to get news instantly is pretty profound. I think more people today go to a news website when something happens rather than going to the TV.

 

[So]

Google, wikipedia and mapquest have changed my day to day life, but e-bay definitely has affected the world. Amazon, too, I suppose, as the progenitor of online shopping.

 

[ArchCenturion]

I would vote yahoo. Thats what i started out with. Then Google came along.. and pwnd

 

[trmiv]

Ebay mainly. I would also have to say MySpace. I don't like MySpace, but people have got to admit, it's had a big impact.