Prior to the Internet, sharing information that was stored on separate computers was a tedious and difficult task. Everything changed on March 12, 1989 when British scientist Tim Berners-Lee submitted a project for an information sharing system while working at CERN. He proposed that this information sharing system would be interconnected using a system similar to a “web” and would include hypertext and other media, such as images and video. Berners-Lee used a NeXT computer as the world’s very first web server, in addition to using it to write the world’s first web browser. By 1990, Berners-Lee had created the first web browser, web server, and the first ever website. HTTP and HTML had already been in development, but Berners-Lee was the first to pair hypertext to the internet. For this reason, he is credited as developing the URL, HTML, and HTTP technologies.
The Internet as we know it today has progressed lightyears beyond the original hypertext-sharing system envisioned by scientists in 1989. The advent of Google has allowed almost anyone to access information from around the world. From informational websites like Wikipedia to humorous websites, the Internet has drastically changed the landscape of human interaction. Additionally, businesses can choose between countless platforms to advertise their business, including WordPress, Wix, Strikingly, and more. The creation and widespread access to the World Wide Web has undoubtedly changed the way we communicate with each other.