Websites that changed the world

Ever since the internet came into our lives, we have come across many websites in one way or the other that have influenced us a lot. They have such a deep mark in our day to day life that we can't even think of a world where they don't exist. By changing our perspective towards anything we see, these websites have made such a huge impact that they have changed the world forever. Listing here are the top websites among them.

1. Google:

Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 as an advertising company, Google today commands the largest internet search engine in the world. It has turned out to be a gigantic empire and is branching out into parts like email, news, price comparison (Froogle), cartography (Google Maps), literature (with Google Book Search), free telephony (Google Talk), and Google Earth, an incredibly detailed virtual globe. So far it has been able to have such an impact over people that its name is listed as a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary. To be honest, there is nothing much to say about Google. Google speaks for itself.

2. Wikipedia:

When Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia in 2001, he hardly thought that his creation will one day be considered as one of the most trust-worthy sources of information. What has made this free online encyclopaedia such a big success is that, it is open to everyone to read, and also to edit. Its 17 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world, and almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site. Today, Wikipedia is attracting 2,000-plus page requests a second.

3. Facebook:

Who thought that a site to connect students of a university with each other will become a tool that every internet user uses? But this is the story of Facebook, the most popular social networking site today. Facebook was was co-founded as a private company in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg and classmates Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, and Chris Hughes. With its dynamic development system, almost any application is possible. Facebook therefor has many interesting features like Connect, the Facebook Developer Platform, Facebook Chat and so on.

4. Twitter:

Ever since its launch in July 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained tremendous popularity worldwide and currently has over 175 million users globally. Who is not on Twitter today? Starting from celebrities, to politicians to scientists, everyone has a twitter account and sending and reading messages called tweets. It is estimated that Twitter is generating 65 million tweets a day and handling over 800,000 search queries per day. Most businesses have twitter accounts as well to be more interactive.

 5. Yahoo!:

Started as a hobby by two Stanford University graduates Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1994, Yahoo! today is considered as one of the most visited and popular websites on the internet. On the back of its early success, Yahoo! branched out into email, instant messaging, news, gaming, online shopping and an array of other services. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine (Yahoo! Search), Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, advertising, online mapping (Yahoo! Maps), video sharing (Yahoo! Video), and social media websites and services. Although eclipsed by Google, Yahoo! still has its own image among the internet users.

6. YouTube:

Launched in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim as a user-friendly site to upload and share videos, YouTube has become one of the most popular sites on the net today, with claiming that 100 million clips are watched every day. Starting from homemade video clips to long-lost TV and film gems, YouTube is a place where people can upload and share videos. It has also taken off as a place for amateur film-makers to show off their talents

7. MySpace:

Owned by News Corporation, this California-based social networking site became the most popular social networking site in the United States in June 2006. Although it was overtaken internationally by its main competitor, Facebook, in 2008, based on monthly unique visitors, MySpace is too effective and ubiquitous to ignore. As of June 2010, the social networking site has 66 million users all over the world. One of its interesting features is the ability to upload and listen to music, which has attracted 2.2 million new bands and artists to the site.

8. ebay

ebay was the website that brought the concept of online shopping and bidding industry for the first time. Ever since its launch in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar and Michael Dean Johnson, ebay has turned out to be a huge shopping mall where people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. It is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries.

9. WikiLeaks:

The recent controversy associated with it and its founder Julian Assange has created a big hype and has attracted attention of the whole world. The website may not that big yet, but the impact that it had on the world is shocking. The website has faced criticism from various governmental and non- governmental organizations, but the fact that makes it so influential is that this site gives you proof and the truth.

10. Amazon:

Starting with an office in a Seattle suburb with desks made out of old doors, Amazon today is the largest online retailer in the U.S. Founded by Jeff Bezos as an online bookstore in 1994, Amazon.com soon diversified, selling DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys. Amazon's continued dominance rests on price-slashing which has made it one of the biggest online shopping centers with new and old items available to the users at a simple click of a button.