Today in Technology History
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May 17
Today is the tenth birthday of the World Wide Web.
The Internet has its roots in military computer experiments in the 1960s. During the next two decades, universities and research centers also got onto the Internet. But although such useful features as e-mail existed, very few ordinary citizens used the Internet.
Then along came an Englishman named Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at the European Particle Physics Laboratory. The researchers at his lab sometimes lost important information, so in the late 1980s Berners-Lee tried to develop a more sensible and intuitive way to organize and access computerized data.
He thought that hypertext -- words linked to information -- might solve the lab's problems. More importantly, he understood that hypertext was decentralized and flexible -- and therefore easily adaptable to computer networks like the Internet.
In late 1990, Berners-Lee devised the basic elements of what he named the "World Wide Web." He developed HTML and HTTP (the basic languages of the Web) and wrote the program for the first Web browser. On May 17, 1991, the Web was first activated. It came at just the right time: personal computer use was skyrocketing, and people were looking for easier ways to get their computers to communicate. Today, the Web is so popular that many people (incorrectly) use the words "Internet" and "Web" interchangeably.
Berners-Lee moved to M.I.T. in the United States, where he now heads the W3C, the consortium that oversees Web protocols. Earlier this week, he was given Britain's highest scientific honor, fellowship in the Royal Society.
Related links:
Click here to visit Tim Berners-Lee's homepage.
Click here to read various histories of the Internet.
Click here to find out how many people are online in your country.
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