15 years of Ars: How Amazon, Twitter, and SpaceX changed the world

Aurich Lawson / NASA

On the occasion of Ars Technica's 15th anniversary, we decided to bring you a series of articles on the most disruptive companies, technologies, and people we've covered in our time on the Internet since June 1998. We begin with the tales of three companies—Amazon, Twitter, and SpaceX—that rebelled against the established order and changed technology for the better.

While Amazon dominated online retail and practically invented what we now call cloud computing, Twitter took advantage of the open Internet to create the most free-wheeling social network and become a tool for social change. SpaceX, meanwhile, has shown us that we may end up looking toward private industry—rather than NASA—to take humans deeper into space.

We'll soon shift to the most disruptive technologies and people of Ars' 15 years, but today's focus is all on the companies that became tech rebels. Let's head back to the mid-'90s and start with the elder statesmen here: Amazon.