connected to it, so Tim Berners-Lee (a CERN fellow) devised a method of navigating between them using a hyperlinking framework, which came to be known as Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP. He also created a markup language called HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language. To bring these together, he wrote the first web browser
and web server, tools that we now take for granted.
But back then, the concept was revolutionary. The most connectivity so far experienced
by at-home modem users was dialing up and connecting to a bulletin board that was
hosted by a single computer, where you could communicate and swap data only with
other users of that service.
Consequently, you needed to be a member of many bulletin
board systems in order to effectively communicate electronically with your colleagues
and friends.
But Berners-Lee changed all that in one fell swoop, and by the mid-1990s, there were
three major graphical web browsers competing for the attention of five million users.
It soon became obvious, though, that something was missing. Yes, pages of text and
graphics with hyperlinks to take you to other pages was a brilliant concept, but the results
didn’t reflect the instantaneous potential of computers and the Internet to meet the
particular needs of each user with dynamically changing content. Using the Web was a
very dry and plain experience, even if we did now have scrolling text and animated
GIFs! Shopping carts, search engines, and social networks have clearly altered how we use the
Web. In this chapter, we’ll take a brief look at the various components that make up the
Web, and the software that helps make it a rich and dynamic experience.
