In early 2004, the world was trembling like a Polaroid, rushing to theaters to see what was to come of The Hobbit and wondering if there was anything special about that man named Tom Brady. . Meanwhile, several people around the world were inventing the web as we know it today. A world-shaking social network was born in a Harvard University dorm room. Google employees dreamed about the future of email in their spare time. The coolest cell phone ever was about to be dropped. The Internet was still a niche activity, but that was rapidly changing.
In so many ways, the digital world we all live in now was created 20 years ago. Google went public and began to establish its dominance over the web. Facebook, Gmail, Firefox, Flickr, and Digg were all born in the year Web 2.0 became the Web. “Blogs” and the “long tail” weren’t on anyone’s radar until 2004, but they’ve become ubiquitous ever since. There was a controversial election in the US, a slew of sequels dominated the box office, and Apple launched new products that looked really cool, only to be overshadowed by better products a year later. I did. Well, some things never change.
Of course, every year is a big year in the technology industry, but 2004 was a particularly big year. and The Verge It didn’t exist yet! So this week, we’re bringing you articles about the best and most important gadgets and platforms released that year, as well as articles about cultural events that still impact our lives. Basically, I’ll be blogging like I did in 2004.
We’ll be publishing more stories and videos from 2004 this week. We would love to hear your memories of 2004. Share your favorite photos from that year, your favorite gadgets from 20 years ago that you wish still worked (or surprisingly still work), and anything else you remember about that seminal year in the recent past. Please. We’re going to do the same. It’ll be more fun than that shrek 2.
