The late ’90s was groundbreaking time for technology. But my, how far tech has come.The velocity of change is exponentially increasing, as a 10-year look back makes crystal clear. In researching the late ’90s for CIO.com’s new slideshow on hot tech from a decade ago, what is striking is how much tech creativity was going on at the time. Of course, there’s also a cringe factor…like memories of waiting for dial-up or what passed for cool then. We couldn’t include everything in the slideshow of course, so here are a few more thoughts on 1998 specifically:A new “file-squishing technology,” MP3 technology, was arguably the fastest growing phenomenon of the time. It enabled people to transfer music from a CD, record or tape; compress the sound into a digital file; and then ship the file over the Internet for others to download, uncompress and then listen to the music. Music-lovers rejoiced in 1998 when the first MP3 players debuted. Record execs and plenty of musicians, however, saw the MP3 player primarily as a facilitator of music piracy, and soon one of the first MP3 players, the Diamond Rio, faced a slew of legal issues.The Palm Pilot was the king of PDAs, but the BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld debuted, bringing new ease to e-mail, wireless data networks, the handheld, the QWERTY keyboard, and giving corporate America insight into the possibilities of wireless communications.Businesses and tech analysts were debating whether upgrading to Windows 98 was worth the cost. (Sound familiar?)In the day before “google” was a verb, Yahoo!, Excite, Lycos. and Infoseek stocks skyrocketed. And the search engine that searched other search engines, Dogpile was a favorite of many Web surfers. Then in late 1998, Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin co-founded Google. The new search engine was incorporated as a privately held company on September 7 that year. And you know what came after that.It’s striking how many important tech events occurred around 1998, and ten years later school, business and social life has been transformed to include technology as an integral part of everday life. What strikes you about the differences between then and now? Related content opinion Yahoo CEO Uses GIF, Tumblr to Announce Acquisition Marissa Mayer bets a billion dollars on the blogging site, vowing Yahoo won't 'screw it up.' By Kristin Burnham May 20, 2013 2 mins Consumer Electronics opinion Funny Facebook Video Spoof Personifies User Frustration What if Facebook was a person who rearranged the contents of your home while you were away? That's the premise of a new video spoofing the social network and the changes it makes, often to your dismay. By Kristin Burnham May 13, 2013 1 min Facebook Social Networking Apps opinion 6 Spectacular Google Glass Video Spoofs Want to know what John Stewart, Steven Colbert and Conan O'Brien think of Google's augmented-reality glasses? Take a look at these six hilarious Google Glass spoofs and parodies. By Kristin Burnham May 10, 2013 1 min Internet opinion YouTube Maps Most-Watched Videos Across the U.S. Which videos are on the verge of viral? YouTube's newest tool displays the top trending videos in the U.S. by age, gender, views and shares. By Kristin Burnham May 07, 2013 2 mins Consumer Electronics Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe