This page is a timeline of online advertising . Major launches, milestones and other major events are included.
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Decade | Description |
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Late 1970s– 1980s | Much of online advertising during this time period is done through Email, in the form of spamming. [1] Such activities have continued to this day, but became much more common after the ban against the commercial use of the internet was lifted in 1991. [2] |
1990s– 2000s | With people now having their own websites, banner ads are used as a source of income to pay for these websites and as side money. Companies like Prodigy, Global Network Navigator (GNN), and HotWired are pioneers in the business of online advertising. [3] |
2000s– 2010s | As more companies capable of providing advertising services emerge, several major successful companies such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL begin to dominate the market. [3] |
Year | Month and date | Event type | Advertisement type | Description | ||||
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1978 | May 3 | Milestone | Email marketing | The first instance of email spam is sent, the purpose of which is advertising. [1] | ||||
1980 | Launch | N/A | Usenet, a popular discussion forum, launches, and is occasionally overwhelmed with advertising spam posts. [4] | |||||
1984 | Launch | Banner advertising | Prodigy launches, offering one of the first online advertising services; although these ads are always in the same spot on the screen, and are non-clickable. [4] | |||||
1991 | March | Milestone | N/A | The ban on commercial use on the NSFNET is lifted by the National Science Foundation (NSF). [2] [5] | ||||
1992 | July | Milestone | Sponsorship | The online newsletter TidBITS launches a sponsorship program [6] in which companies paid to provide information via an email auto-responder to pre-Web users. | ||||
1993 | Launch | Banner advertising | GNN, one of the first web publication and web advertising services, is launched by O'Reilly Media. [7] | |||||
1994 | Milestone | Banner advertising | The first ever clickable advertisement is sold to a Silicon Valley law firm by GNN. [8] | |||||
1994 | Launch | N/A | HotWired, the first commercial web magazine, launches. [7] [4] | |||||
1994 | October 27 | Milestone | Banner advertising | The first ever banner is sold to AT&T, and is visible on the first issue of HotWired. [9] [8] [3] | ||||
1995 | May | Acquisition | Banner advertising | GNN is acquired by AOL for $11 million. [10] [4] | ||||
1996 | Launch | Ad serving | DoubleClick, an online advertising company, launches. [4] [11] | |||||
1996 | July | Launch, Milestone | Search advertising | Yahoo! launches the very first search ads in their search engine. [12] | ||||
1997 | Invention | Pop-up ads | Pop-up ads are invented by Ethan Zuckerman, and considered to be a more aggressive and disliked advertising strategy. [13] | |||||
1998 | September 4 | Launch | N/A | Google, an online search engine, launches. [14] [15] | ||||
1998 | Invention, Launch, Milestone | Ad exchange | OpenX, one of the first ad exchanges, launches as an open source project. [16] | |||||
1998 | Launch | Search advertising | GoTo (now Yahoo! Search Marketing), a search engine which offers search advertising, launches. [13] | |||||
1999 | Defunction | N/A | HotWired is shut down after its domain is re-purposed by Lycos. [17] | |||||
2000 | October 23 | Launch | Search advertising | Google launches the AdWords service, which allows for advertising based on a user's browsing habits and their search keywords. [18] [8] | ||||
2002 | Invention, milestone | Pop-up ads | With the annoyance brought about by pop-up ads, many web browsers such as Firefox, Netscape, and Opera begin to roll out features to block these ads. [19] | |||||
2003 | October 7 | Acquisition | Search advertising | Overture (formerly GoTo) is acquired by Yahoo! to enrich their search engine. [20] | ||||
2004 | February | Launch | Social media advertising | Facebook, the most popular social media network, launches. [21] | ||||
2005 | February 14 | Launch | Banner advertising | YouTube, a popular video sharing website, launches. [22] | ||||
2005 | Launch | Demand-side platform | Criteo, one of the first demand-side platforms, launches. [23] | |||||
2006 | October | Acquisition | N/A | YouTube is acquired by Google for $1.65 billion. [24] | ||||
2006 | Invention, launch, milestone | Ad blocking | Adblock, an ad-blocking add-on for web browsers, is released. [25] | |||||
2006 | Launch | Content discovery platform | Outbrain, an advertising company that powers external recirculation widgets, launches. [26] | |||||
2006 | August | Launch | Native advertising | YouTube launches its video advertising platform, which has a giant reach today. [27] | ||||
2007 | Launch | Content discovery platform | Taboola, an advertising company that powers external recirculation widgets, launches. [28] | |||||
2007 | Launch | Behavioral targeting, social media advertising | Facebook launches Beacon, an intricate advertising platform that tracks Facebook users' activities on websites outside of Facebook. [29] | |||||
2007 | April 14 | Acquisition | Ad serving | Google acquires DoubleClick, an advertising platform, for $3.1 billion. [30] | ||||
2007 | May 18 | Acquisition | Ad serving | Microsoft acquires AQuantive, an advertising platform, for $6.5 billion. [31] [32] | ||||
2007 | Launch | Demand-side platform | MediaMath, a demand-side platform, launches. [33] | |||||
2008 | March | Launch | Demand-side platform | Rocket Fuel Inc., a demand-side platform, launches. [34] | ||||
2008 | December | Invention/patent | Viewable impression | RealVu Inc.invents viewable impression | 2008 | Launch | Ad blocking | Rick Petnel creates Easylist, one of the most popular filter lists available for ad-blocking web browser add-ons. [35] The filter list Easylist Privacy is also available, and focuses on the blocking of web elements that may invade a user's privacy. |
2009 | September 18 | Launch | Ad exchange | Google launches its own ad exchange platform with DoubleClick. [36] | 2009 | |||
Launch | MRC viewable impression accreditation | RealVu introduces the viewable impression invention to the MRC | 2010 | February 22 | Launch | Ad serving | Google launches DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), an advertising software as a service. [37] | |
2010 | April 12 | Launch | Social media advertising | Twitter launches Promoted Tweets, which allows advertisers to pay for tweets to be shown in a user's feed. [38] | ||||
2013 | April 26 | Acquisition | Ad serving | Facebook acquires Atlas Solutions from Microsoft for $100 million, in order to enrich its already bustling advertising platform. [39] [40] [32] [41] | ||||
2013 | October | Launch | Social media advertising | Instagram, a popular image sharing platform, releases its feature of having sponsored posts appear on user's feeds. [42] | ||||
2014 | March 24 | Launch | Social media advertising | Pinterest, a creative image sharing platform, launches its Promoted Pins service which allows for additional advertising in a user's feed. [43] | ||||
2014 | June 23 | Launch | Ad blocking | UBlock Origin, an ad-blocking extension for web browsers, launches. [44] | ||||
2014 | November 14 | Launch* | Ad serving | Facebook re-launches Atlas. [45] | ||||
2016 | June 14 | Launch | Social media advertising | Snapchat, a popular messaging app, begins to include advertisements between user's "stories". [46] | ||||
2016 | August | Major event | Ad blocking | Facebook states that they will start blocking the use of ad blocking extensions, specifically Adblock Plus and Adblock. In response to this, these ad-blockers begin to block Facebook's blocking in a back-and-forth "war". [47] |
(*) Such launches are not initial launches, but rather re-launches.
Advertising in video games is the integration of advertising into video games to promote products, organizations, or viewpoints.
Google AdSense is a program run by Google through which website publishers in the Google Network of content sites serve text, images, video, or interactive media advertisements that are targeted to the site content and audience. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google. They can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google beta-tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering. In Q1 2014, Google earned US$3.4 billion, or 22% of total revenue, through Google AdSense. In 2021, more than 38 million websites used AdSense. It is a participant in the AdChoices program, so AdSense ads typically include the triangle-shaped AdChoices icon. This program also operates on HTTP cookies.
Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where advertisers bid to display brief advertisements, service offerings, product listings, and videos to web users. It can place ads in the results of search engines like Google Search, mobile apps, videos, and on non-search websites. Services are offered under a pay-per-click (PPC) pricing model.
Yahoo! Native is a native "Pay per click" Internet advertising service provided by Yahoo.
Pay-per-click (PPC) is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher when the ad is clicked.
Roku, Inc. is a U.S. listed company founded by Anthony Wood in 2002. It distributes various streaming services through Roku-branded streaming players and smart TVs, supporting both advertising and subscription models on its platform. Roku tops U.S. streaming TV distribution, reaching an estimated 120 million people. The company also operates in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the U.K., and several Latin American countries including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.
WordPress.com is a web building platform for self-publishing that is popular for blogging and other works. It is owned and operated by Automattic, Inc. It is run on a modified version of the WordPress software. This website provides free blog hosting for registered users and is financially supported via paid upgrades, "VIP" services and advertising.
Microsoft Advertising is an online advertising platform developed by Microsoft, where advertisers bid to display brief ads, service offers, product listings and videos to web users. Provides pay per click advertising on search engines Bing, Yahoo! and DuckDuckGo, as well as on other websites, mobile apps, and videos.
In-game advertising (IGA) is advertising in electronic games. IGA differs from advergames, which refers to games specifically made to advertise a product. The IGA industry is large and growing.
Targeted advertising is a form of advertising, including online advertising, that is directed towards an audience with certain traits, based on the product or person the advertiser is promoting.
AdBlock is an ad-blocking browser extension for Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Firefox, Samsung Internet, Microsoft Edge and Opera. AdBlock allows users to prevent page elements, such as advertisements, from being displayed. It is free to download and use, and it includes optional donations to the developers. The AdBlock extension was created on December 8, 2009, which is the day that supports for extensions was added to Google Chrome. It was one of the first Google Chrome extensions that was made.
Chango, Inc. was a Canadian-based, online marketing company was founded in 2008, focusing on search retargeting and programmatic marketing. It was acquired by Rubicon Project in 2015 for $122 million, but it was closed down in 2017.
Native advertising, also called sponsored content, partner content, and branded journalism, is a type of paid advertising that appears in the style and format of the content near the advertisement's placement. It manifests as a post, image, video, article or editorial piece of content. In some cases it functions like an advertorial. The word native refers to this coherence of the content with the other media that appear on the platform.
Outbrain is a web recommendation platform founded in 2006 by Co-Founder and Co-CEO Yaron Galai and Co-Founder, Chief Technology Officer and General Manager, Ori Lahav. The company is headquartered in New York City.
Oracle Advertising, formerly Datalogix, is a cloud-based consumer data collection, activation, and measurement platform for use by digital advertisers. Datalogix was a consumer data collection company based in Westminster, Colorado that provided offline consumer spending data to marketers. In December 2014, Oracle signed an agreement to acquire Datalogix. After the acquisition, Datalogix's name changed to Oracle Data Cloud, which later became Oracle Advertising. Oracle Advertising is part of the Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience (CX) application suite.
Google Contributor was a program run by Google that allowed users in the Google Network of content sites to view the websites without any advertisements that are administered, sorted, and maintained by Google.
AdChoices is a self-regulatory program for online interest-based advertising that exists in the United States, Canada and across Europe. The program calls for advertising companies to establish and enforce responsible privacy practices for interest-based advertising, aimed to give consumers enhanced transparency and control. Companies adhere to a set of principles that are enforced by accountability programs.
Taboola is a public advertising and technology company headquartered in New York City. It provides "content recommendation" native advertising on its partner websites.
Automate Ads was an American advertising technology company that offered products for running and creating advertising campaigns on Google and Facebook. The company was founded in 2011 and was acquired by AdHawk in October 2017.
The Privacy Sandbox is an initiative led by Google to create web standards for websites to access user information without compromising privacy. Its core purpose is to facilitate online advertising by sharing a subset of user private information without the use of third-party cookies. The initiative includes a number of proposals, many of these proposals have bird-themed names which are changed once the corresponding feature reaches general availability. The technology include Topics API, Protected Audience, Attribution Reporting, Private Aggregation, Shared Storage and Fenced Frames as well as other proposed technologies. The project was announced in August 2019.
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