There are around 1.7 billion websites indexed on the World Wide Web. Approximately 15% of those are active.
Over the past 30 years, the World Wide Web has grown from conception to a way of life. From birth to giant. But where did it all begin?
Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee
It began in 1989 with a 34-year-old English computer scientist named Tim Berners-Lee.
For some years, Mr Berners-Lee had been working on the idea of creating a system of sharing and updating information among researchers, via the Internet, by means of communication between an HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) client and a server – an idea described by one of his peers as vague, but exciting.
The first successful communication was implemented in November 1989, and in December 1990, Tim Berners-Lee published the very first website:
(http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html).
The content was a description of the project itself.
Tim Berners-Lee has received numerous honours for his pioneering work; in particular, the invention of the World Wide Web.
In 1999, Time Magazine included Mr Berners-Lee in its list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.
He wove the World Wide Web and created a mass medium for the 21st century. The World Wide Web is Berners-Lee’s alone. He designed it. He loosed it on the world. And he, more than anyone else, has fought to keep it open, non-proprietary and free.
(From Time magazine’s 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century)
In 2004, Tim Berners-Lee was knighted by the Queen for services to the global development of the Internet, and in 2007, the Queen bestowed on him the Order of Merit – a prodigious award held by no more than 24 living people. The Order of Merit is awarded at the Queen’s discretion. She doesn’t have to confer; it’s her choice.
In 2013, he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, and in 2016, the Turing Award for inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the fundamental protocols and algorithms allowing the Web to scale.
The World Wide Web was put into the public domain in 1993, and as director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Sir Tim Berners-Lee is still working hard for the continued development of the Web.
Websites from PCSimple
At PCSimple, we build and host websites. And each time one our sites goes live, we give a nod of acknowledgement to the great man who invented the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the first web server. A man who learnt about electronics through tinkering with his model railway as a child.
To talk to us about websites, computer repair, or cybersecurity, phone 01263 823812 or email [email protected]
Article produced for and on behalf of PCSimple by Hazel @ Folio Copywriting.