Sources and method

Confidence labels

Verified

Documented by a primary source (an official announcement, archive or record) or several reputable sources.

Supported

Documented by reputable secondary sources, but approximate, disputed in detail, or hard to pin down exactly.

Editorial

Our description, summary or interpretation of the era, informed by the sources listed.

Simulated

Built for the exhibit: the 2010 search page, the day-in-2010 narrative, the speed simulator, the chat and download scenes, and the playable game. Never presented as records.

Stylised recreation

Original drawings of how an interface was laid out, in the colours of the time, with generic content. No screenshots, logos or copyrighted assets are reproduced.

Ground rules

• Only facts that can be substantiated are included. Memes from 2011 are left out on purpose.
• Exact rankings are avoided unless a source supports them; lists say “among the most visited” rather than “number one”.
• Figures are rounded and attributed; market-share estimates are labelled approximate.
• Historical websites are linked to the Wayback Machine rather than cloned. Archive lookups are cached and optional, so the site works when archive.org does not answer.
• No copyrighted music, video or game files are hosted. Song previews come from Apple's public iTunes Search API on request; YouTube clips load only when you press play.
• External links are checked with a script (see the repository) and repaired when they rot.

334 entries, 100 events and 419 sources are currently in the collection. About the project.