For web technology, 2011 was a year of great growth and change. 2012 will, no doubt, call for more updates and new functionality. Let’s take a moment to look back at some of the notable web technology events of 2011.
January 1 – Instagram, a popular photo-sharing iPhone app, has an average of 3 photos uploaded per second. By the end of 2011, that number rises to 60 per second, and President Barack Obama gets an account.
Feb 11 – President Hosni Mubarak steps down after the uprising of the Egyptian people, who used social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to organize and broadcast parts of the revolution.
April 29 – Prince WIlliam marries Kate Middleton. Twitter records 227 tweets per second during the event. Even some celebs, including Katy Perry, were tweeting.
July 12 – Netflix announces a change in plan prices – it will now cost more for customers to keep both the streaming and DVDs by mail functionalities.
September 20 – Google+ is rolled out to the public. By the end of 2011, it has more than 62 million users.
October 4 – The iPhone 4S is released. The new version features Siri, a personal assistant application that allows a person to use voice to send messages, make phone calls, schedule meetings, and more.
October 5 – Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, dies, and the Apple community mourns. Apple creates a “Remembering Steve Jobs” page.
November 14 – Amazon launches Kindle fire, which has its own web browser, Amazon Silk.
December 7 – Facebook releases Timeline, its new profile design.
December 29 – After first supporting SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, the popular Web hosting company, GoDaddy, decides to oppose itafter losing tens of thousands of domains.
