Chapter 1
Birth of the valley: From audio oscillators to silicon chips
Chapter 2
Designing the personal computer: Out of the labs and into homes
Chapter 3
The internet gold rush: Browsers, bubbles, and mobile apps
Chapter 4
The intelligence age: From social feeds to neural networks
Ch 3 · The internet gold rush: Browsers, bubbles, and mobile apps
steve In 1994, Marc Andreessen and Jim Clark founded Netscape, releasing a browser whose 1995 IPO sparked the dot-com boom.
Quiz
Co-founded by Marc Andreessen in 1994, what was the name of the highly popular web browser that ignited the dot-com boom?
Quiz
Why was Netscape's August 1995 initial public offering (IPO) considered a watershed moment for Wall Street?
steve Silicon Valley transitioned from garage workshops to massive server infrastructure after the bubble burst.
Quiz
Which famous dot-com company became the poster child of the crash after shutting down just 268 days after its IPO?
Quiz
In what month and year did the speculative dot-com bubble reach its peak before the NASDAQ index crashed?
Fun Fact
Yahoo's original name: Yahoo! was originally named 'Jerry and David's Guide to the World Wide Web' when it was started by two Stanford students in 1994.
Quiz
What was the name of the mathematical algorithm developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to rank web search results?
Quiz
In which Silicon Valley city did Google rent its first garage headquarters from Susan Wojcicki in 1998?
Glossary
browser (noun)
A software application used to locate, retrieve, and display content on the World Wide Web. Netscape’s landmark 1995 public offering for its flagship browser triggered Silicon Valley's massive speculative boom.
A software application used to locate, retrieve, and display content on the World Wide Web. Netscape’s landmark 1995 public offering for its flagship browser triggered Silicon Valley's massive speculative boom.
Quiz
Which mobile-first Silicon Valley startup, founded in 2009, utilized smartphone GPS to completely disrupt the traditional taxi industry?
Quiz
In what year did Apple launch the original iPhone, fundamentally shifting the tech landscape toward mobile computing?
steve After moving from a Harvard dorm to Palo Alto, the platform turned everyday social interactions into a highly profitable data engine.
Quiz
How do major social networking platforms primarily generate their multi-billion dollar revenues?