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INNOVATION | Noah Brier

5 Biggest Innovations of the Decade?

What do you think they are?

April 5, 2007 | RSS | EMAIL | PRINT | 18 COMMENTS

Inspired by a BusinessWeek article I got this email from my friend Scott:

What, in your opinion, are the five biggest innovations of the past decade?

I started writing my own list, which included online bill paying, truly laptop computers, BlackBerry, Google search, iPod and open source.

Then I decided it would be great to open it up to everyone here as well. Really interested in hearing your responses (and I'm sure Scott is as well).

So, I ask again, "What, in your opinion, are the five biggest innovations of the past decade?"


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COMMENTS

1Ian

I've got to throw SMS in there (although not sure when it was invented). Other things that come to mind are Napster, Tivo, Hybrid cars.

April 5, 2007

2Noah Brier

Thanks Ian, those are great.

April 5, 2007

3David Airey :: Creative Design ::

I think you're spot on listing Google.

Their search algorithms have brought more information to the masses than was ever thought possible.

April 5, 2007

4Dan Dickinson

Social networking. We're so much more connected than we were before - and I mean this beyond MySpace and Friendster, but into specialized sites like LinkedIn, Jaiku, and Twitter, and blog-to-blog means like Technorati and trackbacks.

Wireless networking. We all take this for granted - but it's ubiquitous now, and that counts for a lot.

Flash. It's easy to hate, but it made a giant leap in the last two years with the rise of YouTube and Google Video; it's now arguably the de facto standard for painless streaming media. Take that, Real.

Syndication. It's enabling so many services and mashups and all that stuff the kids are into these days.

Lastly, blogging. It's finally fulfilled the original idea of the web - publishing for everyone.

April 5, 2007

5Bonnie in Albuquerque

my top 5 would have to be my:
1. blackberry- can't live without it in any remote region of the world
2. ipod- who knew 10,000 songs could be so light, also functions as a fantastic voice recorder when I have to do interviews and storage for all those pics..
3. tivo- now tv is scheduled around me :)
4. google- love my google scholar, google desktop...
5. blogs- so useful for research, networking and many other things.

April 5, 2007

6Jason

The imaginary first down marker that networks now use.

(Google too, I guess. And I'll throw Wikipedia in there.)

April 6, 2007

7candice

Jason, good one, because now we can use closer camera angles...

Open Source is a bit older than a decade, as well. Officially dates back to the 80s, I think, though Unix software was often distributed for free before that.

my picks? 802.11b, tivo, mp3s (1996? so it's a stretch), cheap cellphones, and the rise of the digital camera.

April 6, 2007

8johanna

dan beat me to the wireless thing. if it weren't for wireless, i would have quit waiting for my jetblue flights for 3 hours at jfk a looooog time ago. guess what. i'm doing it right now. both waiting and wireless. YAY ALLITERATION.

April 6, 2007

9mark

Defnitely P2P technology. but also probbaly some gaming system (X-Box Live or perhaps the Wii).Not sure when the USB standard was invented but that might be another.

April 6, 2007

10Chet Gulland

I have three words for you Noah: Virtual. Laguna. Beach.

Think about it...

April 6, 2007

11David Berkowitz

Twitter! Twitter's the biggest innovation ever!

Yes, I'm kidding.

April 6, 2007

12Peter Caputa

These weren't necessarily "invented", but they became commercially important - in the last decade

1. social networking online
2. software as a service
3. blogging as a business.
4. Open APIs
5. algorithmic search engines and algorithmic ad delivery

April 6, 2007

13R

what about RSS?

April 7, 2007

14justin

My parents' reluctant acceptance of and eventual dependence on the Internet.

April 7, 2007

15Adrian Lai

How about broadband internet (DSL, Cable)? Was that in the last decade? Interesting that almost all the innovations listed are related to the internet. Consumer digital media (cameras, camcorders, music) should be on the list too.

April 8, 2007

16Vanessa Fleming

While it's been said, I will reiterate my love of Google. The fact that I can keep my email, resume, bills, photos, random documents, and favorite sites all in one location in an organization style that suites me is such a stress relief. If I happen to have the tragedy of a computer crash, I have one centralized online location where I can recover everything I need from any computer.

Oh, and online banking is a great invention as well. I never liked balancing my checkbook, so it's awesome that there is a service that does it, and at no cost to me.

While I myself am personally not a fan of Blackberry/Treo/Q, I do think the concept is admirable and innovative. Although it is nice to have someone in my close vicinity having a Blackberry for those times when I am lost or need to quickly look up something.

April 8, 2007

17Bonnie in Albuquerque

I know i already put mine in..but Vanessa you are so right!!! Just finished doing my bills and realized how perfect it is...I can be anywhere in the world and pay my bills in new mexico :)

April 9, 2007

18Amelia Torode

(some of these have been mentioned)
Wi-Fi zones
Phones that take decent pictures and video clips
Blogging technoogy
SMS
Blackberry
VOD services/YouTube
Google
Online check-in for international flights

April 9, 2007