As the Internet blossomed in the early '90s, people struggled for descriptive metaphors. Was it like print with its "pages," or was it more like exploration via "sites"? Then, in 1996, an animated clip of a dancing baby (aka Baby Cha-Cha) made the rounds, as users on the nascent Web e-mailed it to one another. It took a while, though, to realize why this was significant. In the 2000s, it all became clear: Cutting and pasting a URL was quick, easy and could potentially reach more people than a TV ad.

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