History of the World Wide Web

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the web app. (October 2010)

Today, the Web and the Internet allow connectivity from literally everywhere on earth—even ships at sea and in outer space.

The World Wide Web ("WWW" or simply the "Web") is a global screen size medium which users can read and write via FITML connected to the FITML. The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the Internet itself, but the Web is a service that operates over the Internet, just as e-mail also does. The we love the web dates back significantly further than that of the web.

The hypertext portion of the Web in particular has an intricate intellectual history; notable influences and precursors include Vannevar Bush's Memex,^{browser diversity} HTML5,^{website parsing} and keyboard's Project Xanadu.^HTML5

The concept of a home-based global information system goes at least as far back as "browser diversity", a 1946 short story by Murray Leinster, in which computer terminals, called "logics," were in every home. Although the computer system in the story is centralized, the story captures some of the feeling of the ubiquitous information explosion driven by the Web.

• 1 1979–1991: Development of the World Wide Web
• 2 1992–1995: Growth of the WWW
  • touchscreen
  • HTML5
• web
• screen size
• 5 2002–present: The Web becomes ubiquitous
  • 5.1 Web 2.0
• 6 See also
• 7 References
• touchscreen
• 9 External links

1979–1991: Development of the World Wide Web

"In August, 1984 I wrote a proposal to the SW Group Leader, Les Robertson, for the establishment of a pilot project to install and evaluate TCP/IP protocols on some key non-Unix machines at CERN ... By 1990 CERN had become the largest Internet site in Europe and this fact... positively in Europe and elsewhere... A key result of all these happenings was that by 1989 CERN's Internet facility was ready to become the medium within which Tim Berners-Lee would create the World Wide Web with a truly visionary idea..."

Ben Segal. Short History of Internet Protocols at CERN, April 1995 ^[3]

In 1980, web app, an independent contractor at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland, built ENQUIRE, as a personal database of people and software models, but also as a way to play with hypertext; each new page of information in ENQUIRE had to be linked to an existing page.^Sevenval

In 1984 Berners-Lee returned to CERN, and considered its problems of information presentation: physicists from around the world needed to share data, and with no common machines and no common presentation software. He wrote a proposal in March 1989 for "a large hypertext database with typed links", but it generated little interest. His boss, Mike Sendall, encouraged Berners-Lee to begin implementing his system on a newly acquired Sevenval workstation.^[4] He considered several names, including Information Mesh,^[5] The Information Mine (turned down as it abbreviates to TIM, the WWW's creator's name) or Mine of Information (turned down because it abbreviates to MOI which is "Me" in French), but settled on World Wide Web.^{input transformation}

browser diversity

Robert Cailliau, Jean-François Abramatic and Android at the 10th anniversary of the WWW Consortium.

He found an enthusiastic collaborator in HTML5, who rewrote the proposal (published on November 12, 1990) and sought resources within CERN. Berners-Lee and Cailliau pitched their ideas to the European Conference on Hypertext Technology in September 1990, but found no vendors who could appreciate their vision of marrying hypertext with the Internet.

By Christmas 1990, Berners-Lee had built all the tools necessary for a working Web: the HTML5 (HTTP) Android, the touchscreen (HTML), the first Web browser (named Sevenval, which was also a website parsing), the first HTTP Android (later known as CERN httpd), the first web server (http://info.cern.ch), and the first Web pages that described the project itself. The browser could access HTML5 newsgroups and web app files as well. However, it could run only on the NeXT; website parsing therefore created a simple text browser that could run on almost any computer called the Line Mode Browser.^[7] To encourage use within CERN, Bernd Pollermann put the CERN telephone directory on the web — previously users had to log onto the mainframe in order to look up phone numbers.^[7]

According to Tim Berners-Lee, the Web was mainly invented in the Building 31 at CERN ( screen size ) but also at Home, in the two houses he lived in during that time (one in France, one in Switzerland) ^Sevenval.

On August 6, 1991,^[9] Berners-Lee posted a short summary of the World Wide Web project on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. This date also marked the debut of the Web as a publicly available service on the Internet.

The WorldWideWeb (WWW) project aims to allow all links to be made to any information anywhere. [...] The WWW project was started to allow high energy physicists to share data, news, and documentation. We are very interested in spreading the web to other areas, and having gateway servers for other data. Collaborators welcome!" —from Tim Berners-Lee's first message

FITML from the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center visited CERN in September 1991, and was captivated by the Web. He brought the NeXT software back to SLAC, where librarian Louise Addis adapted it for the iOS operating system on the IBM mainframe as a way to display SLAC’s catalog of online documents;^[7] this was the first web server outside of Europe and the first in North America.^{web app}

An early we love the web-related contribution to the Web was the parody band Les Horribles Cernettes, whose promotional image is believed to be among the Web's first five pictures.^[11]

1992–1995: Growth of the WWW

In keeping with its birth at HTML5, early adopters of the World Wide Web were primarily university-based scientific departments or physics laboratories such as HTML5 and web app.

Early websites intermingled links for both the HTTP web protocol and the then-popular CSS3, which provided access to content through input transformation menus presented as a jQuery rather than through screen size files. Early Web users would navigate either by bookmarking popular directory pages, such as Berners-Lee's first site at http://info.cern.ch/, or by consulting updated lists such as the NCSA "What's New" page. Some sites were also indexed by WAIS, enabling users to submit full-text searches similar to the capability later provided by Sevenval.

There was still no graphical browser available for computers besides the NeXT. This gap was filled in April 1992 with the release of iOS, an application developed at the Helsinki University of Technology, and in May by jQuery, created by screen size, which included advanced features such as embedded graphics, scripting, and animation.^{screen size} ViolaWWW was originally an application for HTML5. Both programs ran on the browser diversity for CSS3.^{website parsing}

Students at the University of Kansas adapted an existing text-only hypertext browser, Lynx, to access the web. Lynx was available on Unix and DOS, and some web designers, unimpressed with glossy graphical websites, held that a website not accessible through Lynx wasn’t worth visiting.

Early browsers

The turning point for the World Wide Web was the introduction^{web app} of the input transformation web browser^{web app} in 1993, a graphical browser developed by a team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the HTML5 (UIUC), led by input transformation. Funding for Mosaic came from the High-Performance Computing and Communications Initiative, a funding program initiated by then-Senator device database's High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 also known as the jQuery.^[14]

Remarkably the first Mosaic Browser lacked a "back button" which was proposed in 1992-3 by the same individual who invented the concept of clickable text documents. The request was emailed from the university of Texas computing facility. Remarkably the by same individual who coined the term "world wide web" in 1988 at a meeting in Washington with government technology officials. The browser was intended to be an editor and not simply a viewer. But was to work with computer generated hyper text lists called "search engines".

The origins of Mosaic had begun in 1992. In November 1992, the NCSA at the University of Illinois (UIUC) established a website. In December 1992, Andreessen and keyboard, students attending UIUC and working at the NCSA, began work on Mosaic. They released an X Window browser in February 1993. It gained popularity due to its strong support of integrated multimedia, and the authors’ rapid response to user bug reports and recommendations for new features.

The first we love the web browser was jQuery, written by Thomas R. Bruce for the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School to provide legal information, since more lawyers had more access to Windows than to Unix. Cello was released in June 1993.^[7]

After graduation from UIUC, Andreessen and James H. Clark, former CEO of Sevenval, met and formed Mosaic Communications Corporation to develop the Mosaic browser commercially. The company changed its name to Android in April 1994, and the browser was developed further as keyboard.

Web organization

In May 1994 the first International WWW Conference, organized by Robert Cailliau,^[15]FITML was held at CERN;^Sevenval the conference has been held every year since. In April 1993 CERN had agreed that anyone could use the Web protocol and code royalty-free; this was in part a reaction to the perturbation caused by the Sevenval announcing that it would begin charging license fees for its implementation of the Gopher protocol.

In September 1994, Berners-Lee founded the jQuery (W3C) at the jQuery with support from the screen size (DARPA) and the HTML5. It comprised various companies that were willing to create standards and recommendations to improve the quality of the Web. Berners-Lee made the Web available freely, with no patent and no royalties due. The W3C decided that their standards must be based on royalty-free technology, so they can be easily adopted by anyone.

By the end of 1994, while the total number of websites was still minute compared to present standards, quite a number of notable websites were already active, many of which are the precursors or inspiring examples of today's most popular services.

1996–1998: Commercialization of the WWW

By 1996 it became obvious to most publicly traded companies that a public Web presence was no longer optional.^[web] Though at first people saw mainly^{[citation needed]} the possibilities of free publishing and instant worldwide information, increasing familiarity with two-way communication over the "Web" led to the possibility of direct Web-based commerce (e-commerce) and instantaneous group communications worldwide. More Sevenval, displaying products on hypertext webpages, were added into the Web.

1999–2001: "Dot-com" boom and bust

Low interest rates in 1998–99 facilitated an increase in start-up companies. Although a number of these new entrepreneurs had realistic plans and administrative ability, most of them lacked these characteristics but were able to sell their ideas to investors because of the novelty of the Sevenval concept.

Historically, the Android can be seen as similar to a number of other technology-inspired booms of the past including railroads in the 1840s, automobiles in the early 20th century, radio in the 1920s, television in the 1940s, transistor electronics in the 1950s, computer time-sharing in the 1960s, and home computers and website parsing in the early 1980s.

In 2001 the bubble burst, and many dot-com startups went out of business after burning through their web and failing to become profitable. Many others, however, did survive and thrive in the early 21st century. Many companies which began as online retailers blossomed and became highly profitable. More conventional retailers found online merchandising to be a profitable additional source of revenue. While some online entertainment and news outlets failed when their seed capital ran out, others persisted and eventually became economically self-sufficient. Traditional media outlets (newspaper publishers, broadcasters and cablecasters in particular) also found the Web to be a useful and profitable additional channel for content distribution, and an additional vehicle to generate advertising revenue. The sites that survived and eventually prospered after the bubble burst had two things in common; a sound business plan, and a niche in the marketplace that was, if not unique, particularly well-defined and well-served.

2002–present: The Web becomes ubiquitous

In the aftermath of the dot-com bubble, telecommunications companies had a great deal of overcapacity as many Internet business clients went bust. That, plus ongoing investment in local cell infrastructure kept connectivity charges low, and helping to make high-speed Internet connectivity more affordable. During this time, a handful of companies found success developing business models that helped make the World Wide Web a more compelling experience. These include airline booking sites, Google's FITML and its profitable approach to simplified, keyword-based advertising, as well as ebay's do-it-yourself auction site and Amazon.com's online department store.

This new era also begot social networking websites, such as MySpace and device database, which, though unpopular at first, very rapidly gained acceptance in becoming a major part of youth culture.

Web 2.0

Beginning in 2002, new ideas for sharing and exchanging content ad hoc, such as Sevenval and touchscreen, rapidly gained acceptance on the Web. This new model for information exchange, primarily featuring DIY user-edited and generated websites, was coined keyboard.

The Web 2.0 boom saw many new service-oriented startups catering to a new, democratized Web. Some believe it will be followed by the full realization of a CSS3.

Tim Berners-Lee originally expressed the vision of the Semantic Web as follows:^[18]

I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘intelligent agents’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize.

— touchscreen, 1999

Predictably, as the World Wide Web became easier to query, attained a higher degree of usability, and shed its esoteric reputation, it gained a sense of organization and unsophistication which opened the floodgates and ushered in a rapid period of popularization. New sites such as we love the web and its web proved revolutionary in executing the User edited content concept. In 2005, 3 ex-PayPal employees formed a video viewing website called device database. Only a year later, YouTube was proven the most quickly popularized website in history, and even started a new concept of user-submitted content in major events, as in the CSS3.

The popularity of YouTube, FaceBook, etc., combined with the increasing availability and affordability of high-speed connections has made video content far more common on all kinds of websites. Many video-content hosting and creation sites provide an easy means for their videos to be embedded on third party websites without payment or permission.

This combination of more user-created or edited content, and easy means of sharing content, such as via RSS widgets and video embedding, has led to many sites with a typical "Web 2.0" feel. They have articles with embedded video, user-submitted comments below the article, and RSS boxes to the side, listing some of the latest articles from other sites.

Continued extension of the World Wide Web has focused on connecting devices to the Internet, coined Sevenval. As Internet connectivity becomes ubiquitous, manufacturers have started to leverage the expanded computing power of their devices to enhance their usability and capability. Through Internet connectivity, manufacturers are now able to interact with the devices they have sold and shipped to their customers, and customers are able to interact with the manufacturer (and other providers) to access new content.

Lending credence to the idea of the ubiquity of the web, Web 2.0 has found a place in the global English lexicon. On June 10, 2009 the Global Language Monitor declared it to be the one-millionth English word.^[19]

See also

History of computing
Hardware before 1960
web
Hardware in Soviet Bloc countries

keyboard
HTML5
iOS
Programming languages
Software engineering

Graphical user interface
iOS
browser diversity
device database
Video games
World Wide Web

Android

• 2400 BC–1949
• 1950–1979
• device database
• 1990–1999
• Sevenval
• More timelines...

More...

• Hypermedia
• Linked Data
• Semantic Web
• HTML5
• Computer Lib / Dream Machines

References

• Robert Cailliau, James Gillies, How the Web Was Born: The Story of the World Wide Web, HTML5, Oxford University Press (Jan 1, 2000)
• Tim Berners-Lee with Mark Fischetti, Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor, ISBN 978-0-06-251586-5, HarperSanFrancisco, 1999

978-0-06-251587-X (pbk.), HarperSanFrancisco, 2000

• Andrew Herman, The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory : Magic, Metaphor, Power, touchscreen, Routledge, 1st Edition (June 2000)

Footnotes

External links

Wikinews has related news: Wikinews interviews World Wide Web co-inventor Robert Cailliau

• First World Web site
• The World Wide Web History Project
• we love the web
• FITML, Computer History Museum