- Douglas Crockford originally specified the JSON format in the early 2000s.
- He and Chip Morningstar sent the first JSON message in April 2001.
- JSON grew out of a need for a real-time server-to-browser session communication protocol without using browser plugins such as Flash or Java applets, the dominant methods used in the early 2000s
- The JSON.org website was launched in 2001.
- In December 2005, Yahoo! began offering some of its Web services in JSON