Ever wondered just who invented the World Wide Web? Read on to find out here…
Who Invented The World Wide Web – The Invention of the World Wide Web
The World Wide Web, common terminologies and abbreviations; the Web, WWW, and W3.
The World Wide Web is a vast collection and system of interlinked documents written in the hypertext language, and carried and accessed upon the Internet. Most commonly, users access and interact with the Web using a web Browser. Common web browsers include Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Apple Safari.
Using a web browser, a user can view all kinds of web pages, each of which might contain a mix of text, images, video etc. Navigating across the Web and between different web pages is enabled through hyperlinks.
An example of a hyperlink is this link to whichfreelancer.walshsamuel.com – which is our sister site, and a great resource for all things buying and selling freelance services online by the way!
Common consensus agrees that ‘The Web’ was developed by Computer Scientist Tim Berners-Lee during 1989 and 1990. Berners-Lee is a British born engineer and computer scientist. At the time, he worked at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN), located at Geneva on the borders of France and Switzerland.
Who Invented The World Wide Web – Building on previous successes
Building on the back of previous hypertext systems he had produced; Berners-Lee worked towards the creation of a system that would marry the existing technologies of the Internet and the hypertext language.
With the help of Belgian computer scientist Robert Cailliau, Berners-Lee published his first proposals for a system to enable even non-technical computer experts to access and use the Internet in a quick and simple way to navigate, locate and access information of various kinds. He named his “hypertext project” the “WorldWideWeb” and also took it upon himself to set up the world’s first web server and write the first web browser, which he also named “WorldWideWeb”.
Who Invented The World Wide Web – URLs, HTML and HTTP
In the process of his pioneering work establishing the Web, Berners-Lee also established three key technologies:
- The uniform resource locator (URL) and uniform resource identifier (URI),
- The HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and
- The HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Who Invented The World Wide Web – Read more on the subjects of the Internet and the World Wide Web
Once we know the basics of What is The Internet? and What is the World Wide Web? – then most of us want to get started with using it and building our own spaces upon it. These ‘spaces’ are of course websites.
To build your own website, you typically need a website builder such as WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace, or a whole host of other options. To discover these and more – the blog site toolstobuildwith.com is a fantastic resource and starting point. We’d recommend you visit and have a browse there.
You’ll also need to name your online store (if it’s an online shop, or blog or website name etc.), a domain name to match, and website hosting. Domain name registration is a first step, and then you’ll want to consider the best hosting options currently available.
Once you’ve picked out a name for your new venture, whether that venture is an online store, a blog, a sales / portfolio site or whatever, then domain registration is typically quick and easy. Spinning up the website can be very fast, if you use a website builder (see ToolsToBuildWith.com), but building it out with quality content and media (artwork, video etc.) often takes time.
If you’re building something serious (i.e. a business venture rather than just a personal blog), then you might want to consider outsourcing tasks online to a freelancer. Sites like Fiverr.com are excellent for this.