Best of the decade: Technology

“In the year two thousaaaaaaand!”

That cry heralded one of Conan O'Brien's recurring late-night gags in the '90s, in which he listed ludicrous predictions of how the world would change in the new millennium.

In the year 2000, O'Brien said, political correctness would dictate that the term “homo-sapiens” be changed to “alternative lifestyle-sapiens.” Also, for no apparent reason, the color green would be renamed yellowy-blue.

Who could've guessed he wasn't being absurd enough?

Just 10 years ago, we lived in a world that didn't recognize the phrase “reality TV.” A world in which, for all we knew, Paris Hilton was a French hotel. It was a time before steroids killed baseball, before iPods killed CDs.

It's not just the simple stuff that's changed. Terrorism, war, political battles and financial struggle indelibly affected every aspect of our culture, even — or especially — the parts traditionally considered entertainment.

But the question is: What cultural elements will come to define the years 2000 through 2009?

This week, we're gonna try to sort it out for you. We'll dig through the past 10 years and pick the most powerful, the most far-reaching and the most prominent of popular culture.

We'll cover one category per day, starting with today's entry: The best of technology, 2000-2009.

Enjoy, reminisce and maybe even dream a little.

We've got a brand new decade coming up, after all. Anything is possible.

The technology that defined the decade: What was huge, what was unavoidable, and what changed the way we live

1. Google

You know what another good name for Google would be? The Internet's oxygen.

Google, the Internet search engine founded in 1998, is about as omnipresent as things get online — it's always around, it's absolutely essential, and like that odorless gas we breathe, its importance is pretty easily ignored if you're not paying attention.

Beginning with its fast, accurate and thorough search, the GooglEmpire (it's not a word, but it should be) has grown to include Google Maps, Gmail, Google Earth, Google News and endless other incarnations, innovations and creations.

Face it, it's Google's Earth. We just live on it.

2. iPod

It's a simple gadget, basically an empty — albeit pretty — hard drive and some white headphones. And yet, in just a few short years, Apple's iPod (first released in 2001) has staged a cultural coup and completely changed the way we listen to music.

As much a feat of marketing (joyous, bright musical commercials) and marketplace genius (iTunes, the most convenient music store ever) as it is beautiful hardware, the iPod forced the music industry to change its focus from albums to singles, and from CDs to online digital files. Two-hundred twenty-five million sold, and music may never be the same.

3.Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg may be, depending on your privacy preferences, the best or worst thing that ever happened to the Internet.

While MySpace may have been the original big-time social networking site, Zuckerberg's 2004 creation, Facebook, truly changed the game.

By simplifying and streamlining our ability to find and talk to friends, post pictures, reveal too much about ourselves online and communicate in new ways (poke, anyone?), Facebook effectively ended online anonymity.

4. Smart phones

Starting with the business-based successes of the Blackberry and Palm Treo, the first popular combinations of cellular phone and personal digital assistant (PDA), cellphones over the 2000s have evolved from a means to talk to anyone from anywhere, to a means to do, well, anything from anywhere.

Smart phones are basically tiny computers, with full Internet access, e-mail, music players, GPS capabilities and the near-limitless possibilities of downloadable programs known as “apps,” first popularized by the iPhone.

We can now control our lives from the palm of our hand. Welcome to the future.

5. YouTube

There was a time when that obscure song/skateboard stunt gone wrong/full-court basketball shot/political speech/music video could only be recalled to friends orally, and, with sufficient luck, caught on TV in the off hours. Then came YouTube.

Founded in 2005 to simplify the sharing of video online, the site quickly became the place to find pretty much any video you could think of, and a million more you couldn't. Making “YouTube Stars” of random people with funny or amazing videos (think the Laughing Baby), worldwide sensations of virtual unknowns (think Susan Boyle), and real the conflicts of those far away (think Iranian election protests and Neda Agha-Soltan), YouTube has given us a wider view of the world than ever before.

6. Blogs

Be it serious political discussion or poorly worded ranting, blogs (from “web logs”) have leveled the playing field of online information sharing. Everyone can speak, even if they shouldn't.

7. Gaming consoles

Xbox, PlayStation or Wii, gaming has become a multibillion-dollar industry that rivals the power of Hollywood. Too bad only gamers are aware of it.

8. DVR

Digital video recorders, starting with the popular TiVo, changed the way we watched TV by allowing us to catch our shows when we were good and ready, which in turn profoundly affected network television.

9. DVD/Blu-ray

As DVDs became the go-to movie format, they also became the financial backbone of the movie industry. However, by the end of this decade their sales had slowed dramatically. Time will tell if the industry can adapt.

10. Hybrid/electric cars

Remember when Hummers didn't elicit looks of disgust from others? The race to slow gas use made hybrid and electric vehicles must-haves. The technology continues to advance as we strive to move past fossil fuels.

Nebraskan who most affected technology this decade: Evan Williams

Raised in the town of Clarks, Williams helped found a note-taking feature that became Blogger, the popular blog publishing site now owned by Google. He went on to co-found Twitter, the hyper-popular micro-blogging site.

Top 3 most aggravating technologies of the decade:

1. Auto-Tune: You can blame singer T-Pain for popularizing that singing robo-voice now heard in every song on the radio. We do.

2. Twitter: It's not so much Twitter as it is everyone talking about Twitter. Stop. Please.

3. Musical ring tones: No, “Rhythm of the Night” blasting from your phone does not help define your personality. It just irritates those around you.

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