Blog One
How did the first website come to being?
The World Wide Web (WWW) was invented in 1989 by a British scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, while working at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). It was originally developed for automated information-sharing between scientists, but by the end of 1990, the first web page was launched on the open internet, and in 1991, people outside of CERN were invited to join this new web community.
What is a website?
Berners-Lee realized that information could be shared, using an emerging technology called hypertext, across millions of computers that were already connected through the internet. By October 1990, Tim had written the three fundamental technologies that remain the foundation of today’s web; HTML, URI/URL and HTTP. In August 6, 1991, the first web page went live and shared links to information about the WWW project itself including a description of the hypertext and technical details for creating a Web server.
Hypertext: The text that links to other information. By clicking the link in a hypertext document, the user can quickly jump to different content.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): The code that is used to structure a web page and its content.
Uniform Resource Locator (URL) : The address of a given unique resource on the Web.
Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP): The communications protocol used to connect to Web servers on the Internet or on a local network (intranet). The primary function of HTTP is to establish a connection with the server and send HTML pages back to the user's browser.
Unlike websites today that are driven by user interface design, the first website was designed with simplicity in mind. It was 100% text based, vertically aligned and the only colour used was that of the classic blue underlined hypertext. Structure and format of the web page was achieved using HTML (HyperText Markup Language). A product of SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), the HTML 1.0 version contained only a limited number of elements such as heading, title and paragraph to name a few. The ability to incorporate elements of design such as fonts, grids and altering page background came with later versions. HTML has experienced many updates and today it is currently operating on HTML version 5.2.
Source http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html
Conclusion
The World Wide Web and more specifically HTML is one of the most ubiquitous and widely adopted application protocols on the Internet. What first started as a simple program to send and receive documents amongst co-workers has since turned into the massively popular communicative tool that we know today.
Sources
(Nix, E.) (2018), The World’s First Website. Available at: https://www.history.com/news/the-worlds-first-web-site (Accessed: 8 Mar 2021)
(Shontell, A.) (2011), FLASHBACK: This Is What The First-Ever Website Looked Like. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/flashback-this-is-what-the-first-website-ever-looked-like-2011-6?r=US&IR=T (Accessed: 8 Mar 2021)
(Unknown) (Unknown), World Wide Web. Available at: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html (Accessed: 8 Mar 2021)