Defunct but one of the first commercial Internet service providers (ISPs)
Logo of PSINet
Internet history timeline
Early research and development:
Merging the networks and creating the Internet:
Commercialization, privatization, broader access leads to the modern Internet:
Examples of Internet services:
1989 (1989 ) : AOL dial-up service provider, email, instant messaging, and web browser 1990 (1990 ) : IMDb Internet movie database 1994 (1994 ) : Yahoo! web directory 1995 (1995 ) : Amazon online retailer 1995 (1995 ) : eBay online auction and shopping 1995 (1995 ) : Craigslist classified advertisements 1995 (1995 ) : AltaVista search engine 1996 (1996 ) : Outlook (formerly Hotmail) free web-based e-mail 1996 (1996 ) : RankDex search engine 1997 (1997 ) : Google Search 1997 (1997 ) : Babel Fish automatic translation 1998 (1998 ) : Yahoo Groups (formerly Yahoo! Clubs) 1998 (1998 ) : PayPal Internet payment system 1998 (1998 ) : Rotten Tomatoes review aggregator 1999 (1999 ) : 2ch Anonymous textboard 1999 (1999 ) : i-mode mobile internet service 1999 (1999 ) : Napster peer-to-peer file sharing 2000 (2000 ) : Baidu search engine 2001 (2001 ) : 2chan Anonymous imageboard 2001 (2001 ) : BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing 2001 (2001 ) : Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia 2003 (2003 ) : LinkedIn business networking 2003 (2003 ) : Myspace social networking site 2003 (2003 ) : Skype Internet voice calls 2003 (2003 ) : iTunes Store 2003 (2003 ) : 4chan Anonymous imageboard 2003 (2003 ) : The Pirate Bay , torrent file host 2004 (2004 ) : Facebook social networking site 2004 (2004 ) : Podcast media file series 2004 (2004 ) : Flickr image hosting 2005 (2005 ) : YouTube video sharing 2005 (2005 ) : Reddit link voting 2005 (2005 ) : Google Earth virtual globe 2006 (2006 ) : Twitter microblogging 2007 (2007 ) : WikiLeaks anonymous news and information leaks 2007 (2007 ) : Google Street View 2007 (2007 ) : Kindle , e-reader and virtual bookshop 2008 (2008 ) : Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) 2008 (2008 ) : Dropbox cloud-based file hosting 2008 (2008 ) : Encyclopedia of Life , a collaborative encyclopedia intended to document all living species 2008 (2008 ) : Spotify , a DRM-based music streaming service 2009 (2009 ) : Bing search engine 2009 (2009 ) : Google Docs , Web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form, and data storage service 2009 (2009 ) : Kickstarter , a threshold pledge system 2009 (2009 ) : Bitcoin , a digital currency 2010 (2010 ) : Instagram , photo sharing and social networking 2011 (2011 ) : Google+ , social networking 2011 (2011 ) : Snapchat , photo sharing 2012 (2012 ) : Coursera , massive open online courses 2016 (2016 ) : TikTok , video sharing and social networking
PSINet , formerly Performance Systems International , was an American internet service provider based in Northern Virginia . As one of the first commercial Internet service providers (ISPs), it was involved in the commercialization of the Internet until the company's bankruptcy in 2001 during the dot-com bubble and acquisition by Cogent Communications in 2002.
It was founded on December 5, 1989, and
began offering services, including limited for-profit access to the Internet, on January 1, 1990, becoming one of the first companies to sell Internet connectivity.[ 1] [ 2]
