Top 10 biggest Tech stories of 2008

by Viral Patel · December 31, 2008

In the year 2008 Tech industry has seen lot of ups and downs. Starting from Microsoft proposed acquisition of Yahoo to launching of Apple’s iPhone; Tech world has seen lots of new things in year 2008. As the year 2008 coming to end, let us sum up some of the BIG stories in tech world in this year.

Techmeme.com, the technical news aggregator website has come up with Top 10 biggest tech stories of the year 2008. The data for this has been aggregated by the site from various sources and is manually compiled for creating this list.

Following are the Top 10 “biggest” tech stories of 2008.

1. Microsoft Proposes Acquisition of Yahoo! for $31 per Share

The story at the top of the Techmeme’s charts for 2008 was Microsoft’s ultimately futile attempt to purchase Yahoo. The initial shock of Microsoft’s $44B offer – not to mention the ungodly hour which the news was released – caused a seismic wave to pierce the heart of Sunnyvale and startle everyone from San Francisco to Seattle.
2. Apple Announces Its Last Year at Macworld

Just a few weeks ago, Apple decided to bow out of an industry conference MacWorld, like many of its peers and colleagues. The vaunted gathering which launched the iPhone, the Apple TV, and a rainbow’s worth of iPods would be sans official support of the Cupertino fruit company starting in 2010.
3. Google Chrome, Google’s Browser Project

Browser wars are back! Or so people thought in early September, when Google launched Chrome, its secret project to topple Microsoft’s exploit-addled Internet Explorer. Huh, here’s a twist: perhaps it’s Firefox, the browser developed by Mozilla, Google’s neighbor and dependent, which is really in Chrome’s sights. (How do you react when your benefactor switches from patron to competitor?) Oh, but nevermind the competition, this thing is slick, lightning-fast, and, brand-new. Wait, whaddya mean it’s only for Windows?
4. To Our Developers

Everyone loves the iPhone. But better than owning an iPhone is profiting from other people who have them. In early October, Apple revised its developer terms to rescind a cumbersome non-disclosure agreement, allowing curious coders to share their findings amongst each other. A win-win for both Apple, who placated its popular App Store suppliers, and developers, who concentrated their brains and created successful masterpieces like iFart.
5. Google Is Taking Questions (Spoken, via iPhone)

With every developer and her sister getting into Apple’s iPhone App Store game, might as well expect tech’s giants to play along, right? In mid-November, Google did just that, releasing its Voice Search as an application.
6. Google to buy Valve

Sometimes a rumor just is too good to pass by, or too outrageous not to debunk, and that’s what happened with a mid-October report about Google buying games-maker Valve, creators of Half-Life and Counter-Strike. It turned out to be false, but not before a lot of questions were raised.
7. Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits

Downloaders rejoice! The nefarious RIAA decided in the midst of the holiday season to drop its policy of suing the pants off of people for peer-to-peer sharing of songs.
8. Google, Microsoft Said To Be Preparing Bids For Digg

Social discovery site Digg was Silicon Valley’s most eligible startup of 2008. Rumors of an acquisition first surfaced in March and heated up again over the summer, but ultimately fizzled out. In the fall, Digg raised a $28.7M Series C round and kept its independence for at least one more year.
9. Introducing Windows 7

Microsoft’s upcoming OS – its apology for the disappointing Vista? – was officially announced in mid-October. After lackluster launches from operating systems with cutesy names like Vista and Me, the wise simplicity of Windows 7 being named, well, Windows 7, was enough to propel this story up the charts.
10. iPhone 3G Launch Date Confirmed

The most anticipated gadget of 2008 was, hands down, the iPhone 3G. Apple stayed mum on the gadget upgrade, officially announcing the shiny new toy at a WWDC speech in June. But rumors and eager early adopters clamored for any news they could find.