The World Wide Web is 33 and still growing, the collection of pages on the Internet is available to anyone with an Internet connection. Approximately 4.93 billion people use it, representing about 63 percent of the world’s population. Where would we be without the World Wide Web? You can search, exchange, or broadcast information in seconds. It was a long time in conception and has matured at the same rate as most 33-year-olds.
Just Go to Our Web Site
When the web became widely available, companies overwhelmed with support calls thought their savior was here. They pitched the idea that their FAQ web page would answer any question a customer could have.
It didn’t work out that way, but that wasn’t the web’s fault.
Website First, Business Later
Having a “.com” at the end of your business name used to be a big deal before the Dot-com bubble burst. Companies with real estate on the web were hot, regardless of the business. From 1995 to 2000, the NASDAQ Composite index rose 400 percent, only to fall back to earth.
The convenience of available information has opened up communication between parties that would never have a link. Former service members from wars past have connected following decades of separation. Long-lost relatives have managed to connect, whether it be through ancestry websites or other avenues.
“Almost Every Dot-com Idea from 1999 That Failed Will Succeed”
– Marc Andreessen, World Wide Web Innovator, and Creator
“Price is What You Pay. Value is what You Get” – Warren Buffett
According to various sources, more than 1.8 billion websites exist, yet more than 85 percent are inactive. Real estate prices on the World Wide Web are all over the place. If you want to register your name, and no one else has it, you can put a .com on the end and register the domain for less than $10 per year.
Suppose you want HappyBirthday.com? That’s luxury real estate. The domain is available for $4 million. If you’re flexible, you can have jollybirthday.com for $11.99 per year from GoDaddy.com.
The first website was http://info.cern.ch, created by British physicist Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland. It was built on March 13, 1989, to keep track of information in the physics lab. Their web consisted of a browser, a server, and the first website. It took until Christmas 1990 to make the connection work.
The first pages were simple documents using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In April 1993, the source code of the World Wide Web became available on a royalty-free basis, making it free software. By the end of 1994, the web had ten million users.
“World Wide Web is Three Words” – Tim Berners-Lee
The spelling of “World Wide Web” varies. Tim Berners-Lee states on his website that “it should be spelled as three separate words so that its acronym is three separate “W” s. There are no hyphens. Yes, I know that it has in some places been spelled with a hyphen but the official way is without. Yes, I know that “worldwide” is a word in the dictionary, but World Wide Web is three words.”
Fortunately, it is usually referred to as the “web,” if not the Internet. The late author Douglas Adams spoke about the issue: “The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it’s short for.”
However it is spelled or referred to, the World Wide Web has opened doors of communication not possible before it came to be. From the LMS team to everyone in the world, happy birthday to the World Wide Web!