Inside Bill Gates' 'Internet Tidal Wave' dossier that saw the future and got him sued

dailystar.co.uk:

Google and Facebook didn't even exist.Microsoft, however, did. Bill Gates had been building his computer empire for a little over 20 years, with one core mission: a Windows PC in every household.While Microsoft was succeeding in the hardware stakes and getting early computer adopters to grips with programs like Microsoft Word, the company notably didn't take the Internet very seriously early on.

In 1995, Gates' firm released Windows 95. While it was a hit, it notably didn't include a web browser, and in fact, the company wasn't even taking the Internet seriously (despite companies like AOL and Netscape already going full steam ahead).All of this changed on May 26, 1995, when Gates sent an internal document to all Microsoft employees entitled 'the Internet Tidal Wave'.In this 9-page manifesto, Gates outlined why Microsoft needed to not only start prioritizing the Internet, but conquering it. (You can read the full memo here) "Now I assign the Internet the highest level of importance [...] The Internet is the most important single development to come along since the IBM PC was introduced in 1981."He went on to make predictions which at the time were seen as a little far-fetched, but have since come true in a big way.

In it, Gates said: "The Internet is a tidal wave. It changes the rules. It is an incredible opportunity as well as [an] incredible challenge."Gates even predicted that video calls would become a key form of communication in the future as "the internet will get faster", and even anticipated smartphones.