“Vague but exciting”
Berners-Lee wanted scientists at CERN to share documents easily. His boss Mike Sendall wrote “vague but exciting” on the proposal and let him work on it. Berners-Lee invented three things: the HTML page language, the HTTP protocol and URL addresses.
A decision worth billions
In 1993 CERN released the technology to the public without fees or patents. That is why the web spread so fast. Berners-Lee received the Turing Award for it in 2016.
How the web evolved
- 1991First page on info.cern.ch
- 1993Mosaic browser with images
- 1995JavaScript and the start of online shopping
- 2004Web 2.0: blogs, social networks, user content
- 2010sThe mobile web and responsive design
- 2020sWeb apps replacing desktop programs