Introduction
The Internet has evolved and grown exponentially over the past 20 years. The first internet option was conceptualized in the early 1960s. As humanity expands, people want to understand where we came from, how we got here, and where we are going next. The Internet has fundamentally changed how information is gathered, stored, and accessed. Now more than ever, people can access a wealth of information with just a click of a button, thanks to the Internet and Web 3.
Over the years, web technology has continued to evolve and change, with Web 2.0 being introduced in the mid-2000s and Web 3.0 projected to be released sometime before 2020. The Internet and Web 3 are transforming historical research by opening access to vast amounts of information, but simultaneously making it difficult to determine which information is accurate.
Definition of the Internet and WWW
The history of the Internet begins with its definition. It includes a vast system of interconnected computers, servers, routers, and other devices that form an online environment known as a network. The World Wide Web is a subset of the Internet (Cerf, 2019). The World Wide Web enables users to access files on remote servers using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), including HTML documents, images, and audio clips.
Although the information that can be accessed using this protocol is not limited to just text, these files are typically created with ASCII text, allowing them to be displayed across all computer systems (Hughes, 2022). All information comprises combinations of characters known as bytes, consisting of bits and pieces. These bytes represent codes for letters and numbers written in binary code, consisting of ones and zeros. When one visits any website, the browser sends requests to the server containing the IP address, screen size, operating system type, and other information needed to display the website properly.
Milestones of the Internet and WWW History
In the 1960s, a group of researchers from American universities began collaborating on an experimental computer network called ARPANET. The first two nodes of the network were activated in 1969, with four more added by 1970 (Walden, 2019). By 1977, 22 more nodes had been installed.
In 1973, British computer scientist Donald Davies led a research group and proposed the concept of packet switching—a method of breaking data into small pieces that can be sent simultaneously over different routes—for use in ARPANET (Walden, 2019). This technology would later form the basis of what is known as internet traffic today (Walden, 2019). Walden (2019) further asserts that, in 1979, a team at Xerox PARC developed Ethernet, which remains the predominant networking technology used to connect personal computers and other devices.
Finally, in 1991, Tim Berners-Lee published a proposal for the World Wide Web – now referred to as the document that changed everything (Gandon, 2017). Soon after, CERN announced the World Wide Web protocols, which allowed links between various networks, including file transfer protocol (FTP) and HTTP. These protocols became known collectively as WWW or the Web.
In 1993, NCSA Mosaic was released at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; it was free software and a web browser (Hughes, 2022). After some publicity and the release of subsequent versions, Mosaic was soon renamed Netscape Navigator. It made navigation much more accessible than any previous browsers. On October 13, 1994, Netscape Communications Corporation went public (Talukder, 2020). Now everyone can get online.
Differences Between the Internet and WWW
Many people are unaware of the distinction between the two, but there is a significant difference: the World Wide Web is what we commonly refer to as the Internet. The Internet was created in 1969 by Vint Cerf (Hughes, 2022). However, it would be decades before it became known today. The World Wide Web, often referred to as the Internet, was created in 1989 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee (Gandon, 2017). Berners-Lee’s invention allowed computers, mobile devices, and other connected objects to access information from any location or device on Earth at any time.
Over 2 billion websites are currently hosted on the Web and accessible in about 150 languages (Talukder, 2020). One can find anything on the World Wide Web, from entertainment to news, business opportunities, or even love interests. Some say that it is one of the greatest inventions of all time. Indeed, it has revolutionized people’s lives to such an extent that many have come to depend on it for their livelihoods.
Conclusion
Many significant events have shaped technology, both positively and negatively. People had come full circle from when it first started in 1969, when computers were finally becoming mainstream consumer products, with an estimated one billion mobile devices by 2019. Societies are entering a new era, known as Web 3, which promises to be significantly different from previous eras. The so-called digital revolution means that digital technologies are becoming embedded in all aspects of our lives, as everyday objects or as invisible systems embedded in buildings, roads, or public spaces, connecting people across time and space.
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