Exploring the origins of the World Wide Web inevitably leads to that famous memorandum published by Tim Berners-Lee in March 1989. However, we must acknowledge that a lot of water has passed under the bridge, with events and developments that forever changed how we work, study, enjoy, and get information. The History of the Web is a portal that presents many of those changes in a timeline that runs from the late 80s to the last years of the past decade, and you should definitely give it a look.
Do you know what Gopher is? Anyone with basic English skills will probably say it's a squirrel, but Gopher is also a communication protocol that we now see as a predecessor of the World Wide Web. What happened? In February 1993, its managers at the University of Minnesota announced their intention to charge a license for the use of their technology, which caused an uproar among users. Two months later, the World Wide Web entered the public domain, and the rest is history. Gopher ruled the Internet... until it didn't.
The History of the Web: A Timeline with Details and Unforgettable Events
A couple of quick searches on Wikipedia can explain all this and much more in detail, but if you want to explore The History of the Web in a more direct and condensed way, you should go to the History of the Web portal. There you'll find an excellent timeline that begins with a mention of the WAIS system of 1988, the famous Berners-Lee memo, the creation of IMDb in 1990, and the launch of WorldWideWeb, one of the first browsers.
Some of the entries are accompanied by dedicated articles. The aforementioned Gopher has one, but there are also interesting facts about HTML, the Mosaic browser that was essential for the advancement of the WWW, and Cyberia, the first cybercafe in the United Kingdom (and probably the first in the world).
Leaving the 90s, the timeline inevitably passes through the 'Bug-Y2K-That-Was-Going-To-Destroy-The-World-But-Nothing-Happened', the iLoveYou virus, the birth of Wikipedia and the Wayback Machine, Friendster, WordPress, LinkedIn, the Mozilla Foundation, YouTube, Reddit, the iPhone... in short. The link to The History of the Web is below, and trust me when I say it deserves your time. There is much to remember and learn.
Official site: Click here
