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# Product ranking

2026-10-12

100 Products That Changed the World · #19: Google Maps

On February 8, 2005, Google Maps launched. With dynamic map tiles and asynchronous data fetching, it ended the era of MapQuest's blank-page reloads; with Street View fleets and hundreds of billions of ground-truth data points, it turned software into heavy physical infrastructure. #19 of 100 products that changed the world, overall 92.15, scale 96, durability 95, UX 93, impact 93, originality 88, business 88.

2026-10-11

100 Products That Changed the World · #18: The LEGO brick

On January 28, 1958, a toy workshop in Billund, Denmark, filed a patent: adding three hollow tubes inside a plastic brick so pieces could snap together firmly yet pull apart easily. The manufacturing tolerance was fixed at 0.002 millimeters, so a brick molded today still clicks securely onto one from 68 years ago. #18 of 100 products that changed the world, overall 92.45, durability 98 at the top, UX 95, originality 92.

2026-10-10

100 Products That Changed the World · #17: ChatGPT

On November 30, 2022, OpenAI put a model that had existed for over two years into a chat box, and it reached a million users in five days. In September 2026 ChatGPT had 1.2 billion weekly users. #17 of 100 products that changed the world, overall 92.50, originality and impact 98 at the top, durability 78 at the bottom.

2026-10-08

100 Products That Changed the World · #16: Air Conditioning

In August 2026 China's power load hit a record 1.56 billion kilowatts, and in Beijing cooling loads made up 45% of the grid's peak. The product behind it was invented to control humidity in a Brooklyn print shop. Air conditioning ranks #16 overall at 92.60: durability 97 is its highest score, experience 82 its lowest.

2026-10-07

100 Products That Changed the World · #15: Android

The first Android phone, the HTC Dream, was announced on September 23, 2008. Eighteen years later Android is on version 17. It got into billions of phones because of one product decision: open source, free for phone makers to use. Android ranks #15 overall at 92.75, with scale 99 its highest score and originality 85 its lowest.

2026-10-06

100 Products That Changed the World · #14: Douyin / TikTok

In July 2026, time spent per user on Douyin passed WeChat for the first time. Ten years earlier it was a 15-second music video app called A.me. The decision it got right: open the app and the feed is already playing, no need to follow anyone first. Douyin / TikTok ranks #14 with an overall score of 92.85; scale, at 96, is its highest dimension and durability, at 88, its lowest.

2026-10-03

100 Products That Changed the World · #12: Facebook

On August 26, 2026, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion to settle claims by US state attorneys general that it designed Facebook and Instagram to addict teenagers. One condition: users under 18 get the option of a feed that is not ranked by an algorithm. That is twenty years after Facebook launched News Feed. Facebook ranks 12th at 93.35, with scale 98 and business 97, but durability 92, the lowest in the top 13. This is the product history in order, and what the score is measuring.

2026-10-03

100 Products That Changed the World · #13: Alipay

On May 26, 2026, Alipay said it had processed 300 million payments made by AI agents, and launched an AI Wallet to keep those agents in check. From the 2003 escrow to that wallet, every major Alipay product answers the same question: how do you get people to let go of their money? Alipay ranks #13 with an overall score of 93.10; durability, at 95, is its highest dimension.

2026-09-28

The product history of Windows, and why it ranks 11th

Before Windows 95 shipped, its team found SimCity crashing: the game used memory right after freeing it, which happened to work under DOS. Instead of asking the game's makers to fix it, they added code to Windows that checked whether SimCity was running and, if so, ran the memory allocator in a special mode where freed memory could still be used. Windows ranks 11th at 93.50, with scale 99 and business 99, but originality only 88. This is the product history in order, and what the score is measuring.

2026-09-26

The product history of the shipping container, and why it ranks 10th

On 26 April 1956 the Ideal X carried 58 boxes from Newark to Houston. Loading by hand cost $5.86 a ton; loading boxes cost 16 cents. But Malcom McLean did not invent the box. What he got right was something else: he gave away the patents on the corner fitting and the twistlock so his competitors could use the same box he did. It ranks 10th at 93.65, impact 99 and originality 98, with experience at only 80. This is the product history in order, and what the score is measuring.

2026-09-25

The product history of YouTube, and why it ranks 9th

In March 2007 Viacom sued for over $1 billion, with Mediaset and the Premier League filing too. YouTube did not bet on winning in court. That June it began trialling Content ID, which handed rights holders three choices — block, track, or monetise. In 2024 they chose to monetise more than 90% of all matches. It ranks 9th at 93.65, scale 98 and originality 92, with experience at only 88. This is the product history in order, and what the score is measuring.

2026-09-12

The product history of the McDonald's fast-food system, and why it ranks 8th

The system sold $139.4 billion of food in 2025. McDonald's Corporation itself booked $26.9 billion. About 95% of the 45,356 restaurants are not run by the company. What the 1948 rebuild invented was not a hamburger — it was a manual anyone could follow to open an identical restaurant. It ranks 8th at 93.75, originality 95 and longevity 97, with experience at only 85. This is the product history in order, and what the score is measuring.

2026-09-11

The product history of AWS, and why it ranks 7th

AWS booked $128.725 billion in 2025 net sales — 18% of Amazon's total — and produced 57% of the whole company's operating income. The first thing it ever sold was a virtual machine at 10 cents an hour, in 2006. It ranks 7th at 94.05, with originality 97 behind only the iPhone and the shipping container in the top ten, and scale 92 the only sub-95 score up there. This is the product history in order, and what the score is measuring.

2026-09-09

The product history of the Amazon store, and why it ranks 6th

Book Stacks Unlimited was selling books over a dial-up BBS in Cleveland in 1992, three years before Amazon. Amazon opened on 16 July 1995 and sold $12,000 of books in week one. In 2025 third-party sellers accounted for 61% of units sold and net sales reached $716.9 billion. It ranks 6th at 94.20, with originality at just 90 — its lowest of the six.