INFOGRAPHIC: THE 7 MOST HATED INTERNET “INNOVATIONS” OF ALL-TIME

The 7 Most Hated Internet “Innovations” of All-Time
By Study Web, 10 May 2015.

Did you know that the very first spam email was sent out in 1978?

Today, more than 70% of all emails sent are spam.

Email spam isn’t just annoying; it causes real damage - and it’s more effective than you might think. Spam email can damage your computer with malware contained in links or attachments, which can damage your computer or harvest sensitive personal information to send to hackers. Spam also includes phishing attempts, with emails posing as legitimate websites in order to trick the recipient into revealing passwords or other sensitive information. Then there’s the famous Nigerian scam, which actually dates back hundreds of years.

Who sent that very first email scam? Was it a practiced “Nigerian” con artist who was an early adopter of email, and saw its potential to pull the same trick that had been successful on so many others for hundreds of years?

Actually, the first spam email wasn’t a scam; just questionable marketing. It was sent by Gary Thuerk, marketing manager of the now-defunct Digital Equipment Corp., an early computer manufacturer. Today, Thuerk thinks of himself as the father of e-marketing, but others have given him a title that’s not so complimentary: the father of spam.

Back in May of 1978, Thuerk was an early adopter of email and proponent of ARPANET, the predecessor of the World Wide Web. When Digital came out with a new computer model, Thuerk sent an advertisement via mass email to 400 Digital customers.

Though Gary Thuerk’s reputation is less than flattering today, in his work he did help to usher in a new era of computer technology and popularize the use of email and the ARPANET.

Thuerk wasn’t so lucky in his legacy, but many of the tech geniuses below made out much better…though some of their contributions were just as questionable. The good intentions of those who invented the pop-up ad and captchas are a little difficult to believe today, but hindsight’s always 20/20. Check out the tech geniuses and their unfortunate contributions to today’s World Wide Web below.

Infographic Sources:
1. Google content-filter patent about copyright, not censorship
2. The evolution of those annoying online security tests
3. Ethan Zuckerman
4. Cybersquatters Get Rich New Territories With Generic Domains
5. Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group
6. Net Losses: Estimating the Global Cost of Cybercrime
7. The reasoning behind Web Cookies
8. Who Made That Captcha?
9. Anonymity, Privacy, and Security Online
10. Revealed: The Most Annoying Types of Ads on the Internet [Infographic]
11. The Internet's Original Sin
12. Privacy tools used by 28% of the online world, research finds
13. Dennis Toeppen
14. High school prank began era of computer virus
15. Francis Gurry Appointed for Second Term as WIPO Director General
16. Patent Cooperation Treaty
17. Brunton F (2013), Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet. MIT Press.
18. Dara B (2003), The Latest Cybersquatting Trend: Typosquatters, Their Changing Tactics, and How To Prevent Public Deception and Trademark Infringements. 11 Wash. U.J.L. & Pol’y 267.
19. Szurdu J, Kocso B, Cseh G, Spring J, Felegyhazi M, Kanich C (2014), The Long 'Taile' Of Typosquatting Domain Names. 23rd USENIX Security Symposium.

[Post Source: Study Web.]