You are right it would have been more correct to say that by the end of the 1990's the internet was in wide spread use. By that time, Napster was around, there was online video gaming, most businesses relied on e-mail and had a web presence, Amazon.com had been in operation for 5 years and the internet porn business (the largest use of the internet) was in full swing. The 2000s built upon that base and made it better with smartphones, faster speeds, public WIFI, etc.Sorry I misread the intent of your post. You mentioned 1990s, followed by specifically mentioning AOL in 1991. This was in a reply to Ron Mehico who threw out the dates 2000-2010. Then I responded and specifically stated that internet use was not widespread in the early 1990s and linked a source (not sure why you have a problem with that).
Perhaps if you had just stated AOL usage numbers from 1999, to begin with, it would have saved some confusion. I don't think many people would split hairs over 1999 vs. 2000.
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