Engadget's 20th anniversary

A look back at the products and services that have changed the industry since March 2, 2004.

Engadget is turning 20

Join us as we look back on two decades of tech.

This Saturday, on March 2, 2024, Engadget turns 20. To mark the occasion, our team has prepared almost 20 articles about the tech industry over the past two decades, the products that truly made an impact and how tech has changed our lives.

Aaron Souppouris

03.01.2024

Latest

From its start, Gmail conditioned us to trade privacy for free services
If Gmail proved anything, it was that people would, for the most part, accept any terms of service. Or at least not care enough to read the fine-print closely.
How Uber and the gig economy changed the way we live and work
Dazzled by the promise of innovation, regulators rolled over or signed a deal with the devil. It's everyone else who's paying the cost.
How WhatsApp became the world’s default communication app
Fifteen years after it was created, the messaging app runs the world.
The iPhone changed tech overnight. Almost 20 years later, nothing else has come close
Regardless of what changes, there’s no doubt we live in a world where, thanks to the iPhone, the most important computer in people’s lives is the one in their pocket.
YouTube created the creator economy
Nineteen years after Jawed Karim uploaded the very first YouTube video, the awkward, 19-second clip in front of San Diego Zoo’s elephant enclosure is memorable today only because of what it represents.
Chatbots promise a future that will never arrive
Conversing with your computer has been a dream of futurists and technologists for decades. But even after 20 years of development, chatbots still haven’t caught on in the ways we were told they would.
From mono to mainstream: 20 years of Bluetooth audio
Even after 20 years, we’re still relying on Bluetooth to take calls on the go, but both the voice and audio quality have dramatically improved since the days of the headset.
How 19 years of Amazon Prime has satisfied our need for speed
Just as Engadget was hitting publish on its first posts, I was putting a freshly minted English degree to use working at an indie bookshop in Los Angeles. In seemingly unrelated news, Amazon had just reported its first profitable year after switching from selling books to selling “everything” four years before. (It still sold a lot of books.)
The Tesla Model S shook the industry, but its echo is fading
Look at today’s Model S and you still see the car that was released in 2012. It’s quicker and has more range, sure, but it is the same platform and basic design I reviewed over a decade ago.
Steam defined the modern video game industry
Steam’s legacy is a vast and varied landscape of games serving millions of individual libraries, some thousands of titles deep — all of which can disappear with a snap if Valve decides to stop, sell or pivot.
Streaming video changed the internet forever
No matter how convoluted and expensive streaming video services become, I’ll always think: At least it’s better than watching this thing over dial-up.
Engadget is turning 20
This Saturday, on March 2, 2024, Engadget turns 20. To mark the occasion, our team has prepared almost 20 articles about the tech industry over the past two decades, the products that truly made an impact and how tech has changed our lives.