The History Book

328

YOU AFFECT THE

WORLD BY WHAT

YOU BROWSE

THE LAUNCH OF THE FIRST WEBSITE (1991)

T

he first website was titled

“World Wide Web” and gave

basic information about the

World Wide Web project and how

to create Web pages. It was built

by Tim Berners-Lee, a British

computer scientist at the European

Organization for Nuclear Research

(CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Berners-Lee was interested in

facilitating the exchange of ideas

between scientists in universities

and research institutes, and he first

proposed his idea for a worldwide

network of computers sharing

information in 1989. His site went

live in 1991 and was accessed by

a small group of fellow CERN

IN CONTEXT

FOCUS

Communication

and computing

BEFORE

1943–44 John Mauchly and

J. Presper Eckert build the

Electronic Numerical Integrator

and Calculator (ENIAC), the

forebear of digital computers.

1947 The transistor allows for

small, powerful electronics,

enabling later developments

such as the home computer.

1962 The Telstar 1 satellite is

launched, sending TV signals,

telephone calls, and fax

images through space.

1980s The first mobile phones

come onto the market.

AFTER

2000s The boom in wireless

communication connects

nearly all of humankind.

2003 The invention of Skype

allows for free communication

over the Internet.

The US military sets up

the Advanced Research

Projects Agency

Network (ARPANET).

The Internet radically changes how the world

shares information and conducts business.

The Web becomes a global telecommunications tool

used by millions.

The A R PA N ET grows

and develops to become

the Internet.

The first website is launched to help

users navigate the Internet.

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329

See also: The opening of the Amsterdam Stock Exchange 180–83 ■ Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species 236–37 ■

The Berlin Airlift 296–97 ■ The launch of Sputnik 310

THE MODERN WORLD

researchers. Crucially, Berners-Lee

persuaded CERN that the World

Wide Web should be given to the

world as a free resource.

Although it revolutionized the

computer and communications

world like nothing before, the World

Wide Web was only possible by

bringing together several existing

technologies: the telephone,

television, radio, and Internet.

The Internet

The Soviet Union’s launch of the

Sputnik 1 satellite in 1957 spurred

the US Defense Department to

consider means of communication

after a nuclear attack. This led to

the formation of the ARPANET

(Advanced Research Projects

Agency Network) in 1969, a system

initially of four computers. In the

mid-1980s, this growing network of

interconnected computers became

known as the Internet. Both the

Internet and the World Wide Web

were limited to academic and

research organizations.

It wasn’t until the 1993 launch of

a user-friendly Web browser called

Mosaic that the Web took off for

more general use. Mosaic could

show pictures as well as text,

and users could follow Web links

simply by clicking on them with

a mouse. The Web became

synonymous with the Internet, but

they are distinct from one another.

The World Wide Web facilitated

navigation of the Internet and

helped make the Internet such an

effective mode of communication.

The computing revolution

The introduction in 1981 of IBM’s

5150 personal computer drove a

revolution in home and office

computing. Smaller and cheaper

than the large office computers, it

and its successors had access to the

Internet and email. With personal

computers, the Internet saw huge

growth. The first search engines

began to appear in the early 1990s;

Google, which is now almost

synonymous with Web searches,

arrived a little later, in 1997. The

launch of online marketplace

Amazon in 1994 revolutionized the

way people shopped, allowing the

purchase of everything from books

and CDs to hotel rooms and airline

tickets from the comfort of home.

The Internet brought about

significant changes to the way

businesses operated; globalization

escalated, and the world seemed

to become a much smaller place,

with communication improved

by the speed and efficiency of the

Internet. Jobs were outsourced,

and companies effectively became

“nationless,” since it was easier to

operate from anywhere in the world.

The next wave of technological

advances saw devices become

smaller and more mobile due to

electronic components on tiny

integrated circuits, or “chips.”

The future is now

Nowhere has the introduction of

microchip technology had more

impact than the introduction of the

Apple iPhone in 2007. So-called

smartphones have made the

Internet a mobile resource, with

wireless connectivity offering

on-the-go access to news and

satellite navigation, for example.

Information and ideas can be

shared from anywhere at the touch

of a button via social-networking

sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Smartphones have also had an

impact on education, healthcare,

and culture, and have changed the

political landscape through use

by protestors organizing rallies via

social media to undermine regimes.

Uprisings such as the Arab Spring,

which began in 2010, were partly

powered by activists who

communicated across the Internet.

Internet activism, or “clicktivism,”

has since become a powerful way

to share ideas, raise awareness, or

support a cause. With more than

3 billion users, the World Wide Web

has transformed every aspect of

modern daily life. ■

The information highway

will transform our

culture as dramatically

as Gutenberg’s press

did the Middle Ages.

Bill Gates

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, creator of

the World Wide Web, was fascinated

by computers from a young age.

Today, he is an advocate for an open

and free Internet.

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