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The year CNET got started, big things were happening in a little corner of the universe known as the World Wide Web.
The year 1995 could really be counted as year zero of the digital world we live in today.
Amazon, Craigslist and eBay all launched. Microsoft took its first significant plunge into the stirring waters of the World Wide Web. The PlayStation made its North American debut. Toy Story, the first all-CGI movie, hit the big screen. Future YouTube star Logan Paul was born.
People were going online in ever greater numbers. According to a Times Mirror Center survey in mid-1995, about 24 million Americans used a home computer on any given day, with about 12 million subscribing to an online service, up from 5 million six months earlier. There were massive jumps in the number of websites -- from about 2,700 in 1994 to 23,500 in 1995, and from there past 257,000 a year later.
And there was no shortage of smart, ambitious people looking to ride that wave, and many more toiling away in the vast reaches of technology, science and culture.
Here's a look back at some of the big names of that year.
Bill Gates
In 1995, one person more than any other embodied tech for the world at large: Bill Gates, CEO and co-founder of Microsoft. He was undeniably geeky. He was relentlessly competitive. His Windows operating system dominated PCs, and it had a big, big moment in August of that year with the splashy launch of Windows 95. Looking to appeal to the growing number of home computer users, Microsoft unleashed a $300 million promotional campaign anchored by the Rolling Stones song Start Me Up.
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