The evolution of network communication methods. Part I

Prehistory: “At first there was nothing. Then the Network appeared ... "

The history of the development of conversational messaging technology has nearly as many years as the information networks themselves have been developing. The need to transfer various service messages between computing devices arose immediately after the appearance of the first network systems in the 1960s. For the sake of justice, it must be said that the first network messages were not texts at all: everything began with the need to send service alerts within the network, for example, about the start of printing. And yet, the emergence of the first methods of network transfer of texts was not long in coming.

Already in the first computer networks, even before the emergence of the first network standards, text messaging between users became a widespread phenomenon. It is curious that the emergence of the Internet, which recently turned 45, also began with the transfer of a text message for 640 km between two nodes of the ARPANET network. E-mail appeared two years later, in 1971, and behind it, like mushrooms after rain, other ways of exchanging information began to appear: mailing lists, news groups, message boards and types of what we call today “forums”, and more a dozen years ago they gently called “Bibieski” - from the English abbreviation BBS (Bulletin Board System).
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And yet, all these stages - only the prehistoric era of the development of online network communication. None of these common ways of exchanging data did not have the ability to instantly send messages, and those that did have it were not standardized, and as a result, they did not receive wide distribution. For the transition to a qualitatively new level, it took another fifteen years. During this time, the most up-to-date Ethernet LAN standard, TCP / IP data exchange protocol and domain names were invented, and the Internet using a transatlantic cable has evolved from an American junction to an international phenomenon.

In the second half of the 1970s, humanity made itself happy with the appearance of the first mass personal computers, and by the mid-1980s they became relatively inexpensive and, most importantly, acquired the necessary interfaces for connecting to the World Wide Web. The idea of ​​instant messaging was already in the air, and if the Finnish programmer Jarkko Oikarinen had not invented the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) protocol, which phenomenally quickly became popular all over the world, in August 1988, it would take a little time to invent something like another craftsman.

In 1990, when the first known case of dialing access to the Internet via an ordinary telephone line (dialup access) occurred, the world of human communication changed once and for all. Today, when many apartments are connected to the World Wide Web by fiber optic cables, and the Internet is available around the clock, even on the beach and on board the aircraft, it is hard to imagine the awe of the pioneers who suffered the specific hum of the modem during connection to communicate and exchange information.

Even at the beginning of the development of network technologies, even the simplest messaging applications were capable of instant two-way exchange in real time, which is why they began to be called IM clients (Instant Messaging - instant messages). By the way, support for exchanging text messages directly between users (peer-to-peer) existed in earlier versions of the IRC protocol, however, communication between clients through the server in most cases turned out to be more convenient and reliable, especially considering the connection that was constantly interrupted at that time. . Today, the client-server principle of instant messaging is the norm for the Internet and for exchanging data over a local corporate network.

Do you remember how it all began, everything was for the first time and again

In Russia, the Internet became widespread in the second half of the 1990s, just with the first world wave of popularity of IM-messengers. Now old-timers remember with a smile those days when the height of prestige was to have a 6-digit ICQ number. There was a whole industry trading these accounts, unfortunately, sometimes stolen.

Despite the massive success, IM messengers at first had such limited functionality that they often did not even know how to store the archive of correspondence, which was erased from the local PC memory immediately after exiting the program. The primitive Unix interface with the settings was in most cases completely devoid of any amenities. Graphical user interface? No, not heard. All this appeared much later, as computers and instant messengers spread outside the professional IT community, among owners of Macintosh and Windows systems.

Social networks simply did not exist at that time, so lovers of spontaneous communication with the ability to instantly receive answers for a long time “hung” in the “Crib” and other numerous chats of that time, using non-IM protocols, but nonetheless providing multicast transmission on one "or with several users, sometimes not at all familiar and even anonymous. The chat regulars proudly displayed their VIP preferences: the color highlighted in the name, status, access to a private chat, or the right to freeze the message. The success of a lifetime was to become the "admin" of the chat, the height of happiness - to boast a personal "offline" acquaintance with him.

As they evolved, chats recovered almost all typical "childhood diseases" of messengers, including recording and storing message history, faking user names, inserting emoticons, attaching files, etc. No matter how funny it sounds today, but in early 2000- Their own chat rooms - public or private - were acquired by many respected Internet publications and even institutions. What to do? Other ways of instant interactive communication was not yet invented.

We will talk about the future of online conversation methods next time.