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Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet

By | April 4, 2011, 11:26am PDT

Summary: ZDNet’s 20th anniversary: ZDNet was hatched on CompuServe on April 1, 1991. Here’s what’s on tap for our 20th anniversary.

As you may have noticed, our logo has changed to reflect that ZDNet has left its teenage years behind and is almost of drinking age.

ZDNet was hatched on CompuServe on April 1, 1991. (We didn’t blab about our anniversary on April 1 since you wouldn’t have believed us anyway.)

Over the next month we’ll be rolling out a series of posts and videos on the anniversary including:

  • The time warp to tech in 1991 with our current staff;
  • Videos on the anniversary, including the one embedded below;
  • Memories from previous staffers;
  • …and we might even give some stuff away and do a TweetUp or two.

Here’s ZDNet’s history in five minutes:

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

More from “Between the Lines”

Topics

Larry Dignan, Warp, Video, CompuServe, Prodigy Communications, Corporate Communications, Marketing

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
lnmarket@... 16th Jun
Happy birthday! It's hard to believe that it's been twenty years. I believe that I've been with you from the start.
View in thread
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
Rama.NET 4th Apr 2011
Happy Birthday ZDNET.
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
kenosha77a 4th Apr 2011
Well done and congratulations.

BTW, did you actually launch this service on an April Fool's Day twenty years ago? That's sort of funny.
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
czorrilla 4th Apr 2011
I miss when ZDnet was a rival to cnet and had it's own cable channel. On Those days, that was the only channel my brother. my wife and me watched the whole day!!
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
scruff40 4th Apr 2011
Started reading here in 93 or 94 (can't quite remember) while it seems like more flame baiting than anything else nowadays its still fun to read and I still get some good tech knowledge . Congrats
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
Loverock Davidson 4th Apr 2011
Happy Birthday, ZDNet!

In a bit of nostalgia, can you bring back ZDTV and a few episodes of The Screensavers with Kate & Leo?
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Staff
RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
Larry Dignan 4th Apr 2011
@Loverock Davidson Sure as long as Paul Allen funds it. He bought ZDTV then it turned into G4.
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
erichmercado 5th Apr 2011
Happy 20th anniversary! More years and even decades to come ZDNet! =)
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Happy Anniversary ZDNet!
oldbaritone 7th Apr 2011
Cheers to the historic 20 and to many, many more!
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And their talkbacks are still horrible . . .
CobraA1 18th Apr 2011
And their Talkbacks are still horrible . . . problems with minor message edits being marked as spam, still missing some of the niceties of regular forum software, replies being placed on top instead of where they will be shown when the page is refreshed, and basically there are Talkback issues that are years old. Basically still stuck in the '90s.
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The more things change
Will Farrell 20th Apr 2011
@CobraA1
The more they stay the same! happy
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
dswhite 21st Apr 2011
Congrats Mr. Ziff and Mr. Davis wink
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
yvonnemariea 21st Apr 2011
I was a new middle school teacher in 1983, when I published my first online article (via Compuserve and McGraw-Hill Information Exchange) promoting collaborative learning??.???.?
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
jaffejim Updated - 21st Apr 2011
Happy 20th anniversary ZDNet.. I remember paying $25 bucks for a box of Ten 5.25 Floppies...and might add very happy to get them.. Jim Jaffe
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Computing on a desert island
l_e_cox 21st Apr 2011
I worked at a place that saw the web as a major security menace and potential source of distraction to the staff.
We started out with just an internal dumb terminal network connected to a central microcomputer in a protected area.
The rest of us operated on a stand-alone basis.
Our most important computer generated our mailing lists. On it I learned to use Ashton-Tate's Dbase some time in the late 1980's. By the early 1990's I had the opportunity to get my own desktop. It was a Packard Bell from Office Depot. My "great new" database application was Lotus Works 1.0. I stayed connected to the computing world by subscribing to magazines like PC World.
It wasn't until the mid 1990's that we got a peer-to-peer network installed in the building. This was a management initiative. Later we moved to an IP-based network served locally. But most of us still had stand-alone desktops and shared files using diskettes and thumb drives!
By Y2K I finally had my own copy of Excel. We were in the big time! But it wasn't until years later that we could actually access the web from certain designated machines, if we had the right credentials.
I didn't start joining forums until I left that job. I no longer feel the need for a PC World subscription to stay connected!
Better life? Desert islands do have their advantages...
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
davechilds_2000@... 21st Apr 2011
Happy 20th Anniversary ZD net!
Here's to another 20.
Well done and keep the good work up.
Charlie
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
bobeld@... 22nd Apr 2011
I remember you mid 90's magazine geared toward families, Family PC. Our family was a product tester for you and occasionally got goodies and a write up in the magazine. What a wonderful time that was! PC Magazine, Family PC and a host of other sources gave me the courage to build my own systems and stay on the cutting edge. I wonder what the next twenty years will bring...
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
cliffdf_z 15th Jun
I joined long enough ago that I can not remember why I joined! So we have grown old together. Well done Zdnet!
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Almost voting age
rketchum@... 15th Jun
At 21, you'll be of legal voting age. You had my vote back when I was using CompuServe and 1200 / 2400 baud dial-in.
I can't seem to locate the question I need to answer, as part of the laptop bag contest. Either way, I've gained a lot of good info from you guys (and gals). Only 20....hmmm, seems like a lot longer.
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
sandradon@... 16th Jun
Can't find it either and I've been learning, reading, enjoying ZDNet since the VERY OLD DAYS.
sandradon@aol.com
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RE: Happy 20th anniversary, ZDNet
lnmarket@... 16th Jun
Happy birthday! It's hard to believe that it's been twenty years. I believe that I've been with you from the start.

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