Post
Do You Recognize This Salesforce?
Posted on April 17, 2024 (Last modified on December 10, 2024) • 5 min read • 884 wordsThe World's Leading CRM has chagned A LOT over the years...
…and so has its homepage! The 3 annual releases aren’t the only updates Salesforce has had over the years. Over the years, product releases, acquisitions, UX overhauls, the invention of the iPhone, and more have all caused big changes to www.salesforce.com. We figured it’d be fun to look back at what used to be. And, thanks to the internet archive, we can! Let’s dive in!
1999
November 28, 1999 — a world gripped in fear that in less than 35 days all the computers would… break. But Salesforce was officially underway! We’ve got a login portal, a free pilot program, and, at the very top, some familiar object tabs!
There’s actually something almost wholesome about seeing these familiar little faces nearly 25 years ago.
2000
By October of 2000 we’ve got a bit of a color overhaul with the dark green, some navigation tabs that are more about Salesforce as a product (as opposed to in-org UX), and a SaaSy sighting! (along with the 1–800-NO-SOFTWARE phone number).
How could anybody have doubted the power of SaaS?
2001
By 2001 our greens have become blue, Salesforce is the “global leader”, there’s a 30-day test drive offer, and our page has been centered (although it’s not responsive — just narrow)! Also, the login panel is also no longer housed on the main homepage and things are starting to look a little mor sleek and minimal. Goodbye 90’s internet.
2002
By 2002 we’ve got flags, a global presence, a free trial, free demos, and our first homepage callouts for “automation”!
I’m sure a few people are wondering how many users you got for $65 per month in 2002, but I’ll bet a lot of people are curious about Salesforce Offline Edition 👀👀👀. It feels like such a contradiction product-wise by today’s standards.
2004
By 2004 we’ve got our first (now failed) Flash elements on the page! We’ve also got free whitepapers, webinars, and a confirmation that $65 is per person (they weren’t called “users” by sales yet) per month.
Also, the page has finally become loooooonger and the scroll bar has started to get some use.
And here’s our first mention of Salesforce’s philanthropic efforts, the salesforce.com foundation, and a perhaps first-ever pledge 1% completion!
2005
By mid-2005, the homepage hasn’t changed much (although we can’t see what would have been in the Flash elements there, which probably saw fairly regular updates). But we can see that Salesforce is hiring!
2005 also marked a suffix-ification at Salesforce with homepage real estate for salesforce, supportforce, customforce, sforce, and multiforce! A precursor to the current “— Cloud” product suffixes, “force” was better for brand recognition and that was higher priority at the time.
2006-Present?
Will be coming up over the next few days, so be sure to subscribe so you’ll be the first to know! (And of course we’ll update this post with the links for each time period right here!)
For the early 2000s, what surprised you the most? Which had your favorite color scheme? Why didn’t we buy stock? Let us know in the comments!
And, until next time, keep working hard, smart, and happy — we’ll see you in the cloud.
A blurb I think I’ll start sending to relatives who ask what exactly I do nowadays.
2010
We’ve got cloud! The familiar asymmetric cloud that’s said “Salesforce” for the last 15 years has officially made an appearance by 2010!
And it’s already being put to use linking the Salesforce brand with its big name clients (like 2010 Starbucks!) thanks to some graphic design/branding we still see the platform employ today!
2010’s site also celebrates the launch of Chatter!
And in a move that, in hindsight, kind of perfectly encapsulates the energy of 2010 and the sequel-heavy-box-office-summer we have callouts for Sales Cloud 2 and Service Cloud 2! (Rejected titles included: Sales Cloud 2: Sell Harder and 2 Service 2 Cloud).
2011-Present?
Will be coming up over the next few days, so be sure to subscribe so you’ll be the first to know! (And of course we’ll update this post with the links for each time period right here!) And you can see the previous installment right here!
Do You Recognize This Salesforce? 1999–2005 For this stretch, what surprised you the most? Which was your favorite product name? Do you still have your first smartphone? Let us know in the comments! And, until next time, keep working hard, smart, and happy — we’ll see you in the cloud.
And with that we also get the more formal rollout of Customer Success Stories and a public-facing presentation of account size and industry-specific marketing!
A strategy that would prove succesful and remains in place to this day!
2016-Present?
Will be coming up next week, so be sure to subscribe so you’ll be the first to know! (And of course we’ll update this post with the links for each time period right here!) And you can see the previous installments right here!
For this stretch, what surprised you the most? Which was your favorite logo? Do you remember your favorite Google+ account? Let us know in the comments!
And, until next time, keep working hard, smart, and happy — we’ll see you in the cloud.