I think Facebook opening up to the general populace in 2006 or the release of the iPhone in 2007 are pretty good places to call the end of the golden age, or at least the beginning of the end. They represent pretty significant milestones in a trend away from "a subset of the population willing to traverse moderate technical challenges in order to communicate with others in mostly anonymous, highly customizable ways" towards "everyone on earth communicating through highly sanitized, advertiser-friendly platforms".
The modern internet undoubtedly started in the mid-00's. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, all were founded between 2005 and 2007.
The start of the Internet's golden age is a little harder to pin down, but the mid-nineties public release of PHP in '95, or the launch of GeoCities in '94, or the release of CSS in '96 is probably a fair estimate. That gives a good decade of prime World Wide Web.
The modern internet undoubtedly started in the mid-00's. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, all were founded between 2005 and 2007.
The start of the Internet's golden age is a little harder to pin down, but the mid-nineties public release of PHP in '95, or the launch of GeoCities in '94, or the release of CSS in '96 is probably a fair estimate. That gives a good decade of prime World Wide Web.