Technology / Wednesday, April/24/2024 / 25

The History of the Web

The World Wide Web was officially introduced to the world on August 6, 1991 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Here are some Web history highlights as originally referenced from the BBC.

The Beginning: August 6, 1991

Tim Berners-Lee formally introduced his project to the world on the alt.hypertext newsgroup. In the post he said the project "aims to allow links to be made to any information anywhere". It did this by using hypertext a method for linking between different documents.

Although invented many years earlier Mr Berners-Lee's invention married hypertext with the internet. He also made available all of the files necessary for people to replicate his invention.
More early history:

Free Code:April 30, 1993

Tim Berners-Lee managed to persuade CERN to provide the web technology and program code for free so that anyone could use and improve it. The decision is credited as one of the key reasons the web grew so quickly.

HTML is Released: June 1993

The HTML programming language used to create webpages is released.
More about HTML:

About Web Design

Yahoo Is Created: February 1994

Yahoo was started by Stanford University students David Filo and Jerry Yang. It was originally called "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" a site featuring a hierarchical directory of other sites. It was renamed Yahoo soon after. The name stands for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.

Some net ranking firms say that Yahoo is the most visited site on the web today.
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The White House Goes Live: October 13, 1994

President Bill Clinton puts whitehouse.gov on the web.

Amazon Comes Online: July 1, 1995

The online book store was originally founded as Cadabra.com by Jeff Bezos in 1994. It was one of the first major companies to sell goods on the web. Although it started as an online bookstore it now sells music,electronics, furniture, and even food.
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Internet Explorer: August 24, 1995

Microsoft's Internet Explorer is released as part of Windows 95.
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Google is Created: September 1998

Google opens its first office in a garage in California.
More about Google:

Google Cheat Sheet
Google Search - Google Search Engine Basics
Google Quiz

MySpace Gets Started: August 19, 1999

MySpace was originally an online storage and file sharing firm but was shut down in 2001. The social networking site in its present form launched in July 2003. It was set up 2003 by Tom Anderson, Chris DeWolfe, and a small team of programmers. MySpace now has close to 100 million users. The site lets users build a personalized home page, blogs, photos, music, and a messaging system. In 2005, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch paid 580m for the site.
More about MySpace:

Free Premade MySpace Layouts

The Dotcom Bubble Bursts: January 14, 2000

The dotcom bubble had been growing since 1997. The excitement surrounding the web caused share prices to soar. In January 2000 it reached its peak when the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record level never reached before or since. On March 10 the NASDAQ Composite Index also reached an all-time high. Soon after, the markets began to crash and with it went many of the start up companies bankrolled during the dotcom boom.

Millions of Sites Online: August 2000

Nearly 20 million websites online.

The "Wardrobe Malfunction" Becomes the Most Searched For Image in Web History: January 5, 2004

During a halftime show with Justin Timberlake at the Superbowl pop star Janet Jackson had a "wardrobe malfunction". Following the event search engines reported a surge in searches for terms such as Janet Jackson and Super Bowl as people looked for images of the event.
More about popular culture online: