Think about how many different apps you likely use
to stay in touch with your friends and coworkers. WhatsApp, Metas Messenger, DMs on Instagram,
and X, Microsoft Teams, so your manager can tell you how disappointed they are.
And back in the late 90s and early 2000s, things weren't all that different,
in that it was common to have your contacts spread out over several platforms.
Think AIM, MSN Messenger, ICQ, and Yahoo Messenger.
That's why the first program that Gen Z won't remember
is Trillion. I don't remember, I don't know what that is. Don't include that though.
It'll undercut everything. You see, unlike today,
running all of those messaging clients at once could actually affect performance on your PC,
meaning Trillion was a welcome solution as it supported multiple popular chat platforms
in one client, while putting contacts in one list
to make the experience more seamless than having four separate programs open.
This made Trillion quite popular, but it also opened it up to disputes
with these platforms. In fact, AOL and Yahoo both blocked Trillion
from connecting to their instant messaging networks at different points. But ironically, Trillion is still around,
while these other legacy chat clients are now history.
As direct messaging became integrated into social media platforms,
where you likely had a larger friends list, and cloud software suites from companies
like Google and Apple, there wasn't as much of a need
for totally separate messaging programs. But Trillion survived by marketing itself
as a more secure solution for healthcare environments
that handle people's personal information. It does, however, still have a logo
that looks like it's from a late 90s soda commercial.
What can you do? If you were one of the many music lovers
that was looking for a way to download songs after the original version of Napster was forced offline
following a court decision, there was a good chance you were using Kazaa.
Oh yeah, I know about this one. A common sight on computers during the early 2000s,
Kazaa was a Napster-like peer-to-peer file sharing program
that allowed people to download music and video stored on other people's PCs.
But unlike Napster, Kazaa did not keep a centralized list
of every file on the network. Instead, Kazaa's directories were on client PCs
called super nodes, basically just computers with better performance
and faster internet connections than average. This meant that the Kazaa network was more distributed
than Napsters, which the developers hoped would make it more difficult for the recording industry
to hit them with lawsuits. Plot twist, Kazaa got into legal trouble anyway.
And not only that, but the users did as well
with the Recording Industry Association of America coming after unsuspecting users
who had left their music libraries available for upload.
Many of these users had to cough up around 3,000 bucks each
in order to settle out of court. Kazaa did still try to write itself
after the lawsuits by becoming a legitimate online storefront
for legal music, but the public never really warmed up to it.
Napster already had much more mind share in that space
after they went legit, and Kazaa was already known for bundling
a large amount of spyware and adware, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence
that they'd handle people's money well. Of course, there were plenty of other similar file sharing
programs, Bear Share, Lime Wire, Morpheus.
But as the 2000s went on, the Recording Industry began to leverage
the popularity of online music and legal alternatives started to pop up.
Whether it was 99 cent MP3 downloads from iTunes
or early streaming services like Groove Shark or Songza,
which was absorbed into Google Play Music, which was ultimately replaced by YouTube music.
Oh, Google. How long will that be here? Who knows? This meant that Peer to Peer was dying out around 2010,
but Napster's legal streaming service is actually still around.
And if you're wondering why we talked about Kazaa instead of them,
it's because we actually have another episode where we talk about Napster
and a couple of other old school programs. So go check out that video next.
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