The Internet before the Internet, Part 3

Alright, we’ve made it this far, let’s see how we ended up where we are today.

Usenet groups have provided people an unprecedented amount of connection, and global communication has (seemingly) never been easier. Internet Relay Chats (IRC’s) are slowly coming into prominence, offering instant and live contact amongst users. But this still isn’t the internet we know today.

You may be familiar with the internet of the now (considering you’re using it right now), and you probably know all about “www” and “.com” or “.org” and all the other website necessities. But here’s the funny thing about all of that: those all came about from one internet innovation.

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist working at Switzerland based CERN, developed a simple system for transmitting data amongst colleagues and compatriots. Wanting faster and more reliable communication and information sharing, Berners-Lee established the World Wide Web (WWW) for members of CERN.

That alone would be a phenomenal feat for any one person, but boy howdy does it get even better! Ya see, the WWW wasn’t just your typical system for transferring data; the WWW was the biggest framework we have for the modern day internet. You can actually check out one of the very first websites to use the WWW format!

Berners-Lee didn’t stop there, however. See, the WWW was great and all, but it lacked…pizzaz. Showmanship. It looked like your typical boring old person website, y’know the ones. It needed a new start. A fresher start. It needed…HTML.

And only a year later, it got it. Released around 1990 by (who else) Tim Berners-Lee, HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the DNA of any website. Where WWW acted as the body of a website, allowing it to be hosted for the entire world to see, HTML acts as the soul of a website, giving it exactly what it needed to become the global internet that all of us nowadays take for granted.

From that point forward, the internet would only continue to grow! Later on, we’ll discuss the intricacies of search engines and the internet entering its teenage years! That’s it for now, however. Peace!