Do You Recognize This Salesforce?

We’re back with Part 2 of our look at how the homepage of the world’s leading CRM has changed over the years — like clicking through the years on Google Maps to see what’s become of your childhood home!

Thanks to the internet archive, we’ve got a time capsule of the impacts product releases, acquisitions, UX overhauls, the invention of the iPhone, and more have had on www.salesforce.com and today we’re taking a look at 2006–2010! Let’s dive in!

2006

We’re still seeing the spectres of Flash elements lost to time or rendered unrenderable by security advancements, web best practices, and a more modern commitment to accessibility — but 2006’s homepage has some exciting developments!

Along with a continuation of the trend that’s seen more and more text and content beginning to populate the homepage, we also have our first official AppExchange callout!

And it’s already hosting more 280 apps!

An incredible number for the time, but a ghost town cvompared to today’s 7000+ apps!

2007

2007 and we’ve got functioning (archived) homepage banners AND our first Dreamforce mention! That year San Francisco would play host to the Trailblazer Community from September 16th to 19th.

We’ve also got a new, low (advertised) price of $10/user/month, 575+ apps on the AppExchange (more than doubled in a year) and…

…our first Apex call out!

And a collaboration between two of today’s most dominant companies in the tech space!

2008

2008, unfortunately, has the return of the un-archived or unrenderable Flash elements but(!) we also have a price drop, hundreds more AppExchange apps (up to 800 now!), 10,000+ new customers, and 1 additional language added!

2008 also has some of our first homepage pitches of the platform as a service and the advent of Force.com!

And, perhaps most exciting — the introduction (and immediate ubiquity) of the iPhone gave rise to Salesforce Mobile for the iPhone!

A cozy tie in to the fact that Marc Benioff gave Steve Jobs the “App Store” name and rebranded Salesforce’s app marketplace as the AppExchange.

And how could I not mention the Salesforce for Dummies shoutout (and offer!) — one of the platform’s first widespread public guides and written by Matt Kaufman who’s still Trailblazing today (we just saw him speak at TDX)!

2009

The last year of the aughts, naughts, two-thousands, whatever you call them, 2009’s homepage suffers from some rendering issues that persist for several of the snapshots for the year on the internet archive but what does render is our first real shift to the modern “Cloud” suffix naming convention!

By this point Salesforce has also catapulted to 1.5M+ succesful engagements and, while the page itself has become much “cleaner” and more modern in its embrace of negative space — they chose to devote a large chunk to really reiterating what CRM is and what Salesforce does.

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.