The document celebrates the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web (WWW) by outlining its history, key developments, and milestones from its inception in 1989 to 2014. It details the evolution from a scientific tool to a commercial platform, highlighting significant events such as the launch of popular websites and browsers, the rise of social media, and the establishment of internet regulations. By 2014, the web had become a crucial source of information for billions of users worldwide.

1. A Short History of the
World Wide Web
(WWW)

2. To celebrate the 25th anniversary, this short story of the
World Wide Web (WWW) highlights some of the most
important and meaningful events that have made the
web what it is today:
A Platform Used by 2,802,478,934*
People Worldwide!
*as of 10th December 2014

3. WWW Summary
Interactive websites
appeared marking the
beginning of Web 2.0
SEO appeared, looking to
optimise information
within search engines
Browsers started
competing for market
share
Web is now used by
everyone: young, old
and even royalties
Web 2.0 Era
The internet opened for
public use
W3C established internet
regulations for all
Popular websites started
shaping the Web 1.0
More browsers
Appeared
Search Engines were
born to organise
information
Growth, Regulations
and the Web 1.0
First browser was written
First hyperlink was
created
Involved only scientists,
CERN employees and
some businesses
Creation of Internet

4. What made the internet possible?
The ability to connect individual files on the web
through browsers and hyperlinks.

5. The World Wide Web
On the left is our timeline starting in 1989.
Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first browser called
“WorldWideWeb”, (later renamed to Nexus to avoid
confusion between the software and the World Wide Web).
It used ‘hyperlinks’ through which people could ‘navigate’
from one document to another.
This was established over what is today known as the
Internet.
1989
References
www.asiantribune.com
W3 http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/WorldWideWeb.html
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html

6. Websites started to connect…
• Document 1
• Document 2
Website
• Document 1
• Document 2
Website • Document 1
• Document 2
Website

7. The first browser
This is what the
first browser used
to look like…
References
Image credits http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/WorldWideWeb.html
1989

8. Who was the Web for?
Scientists, CERN
Created online
documents
/websites
Businesses
Opened Websites/
Public Page
Government
Started having
public information
published on the
web
Users
owing a
desktop

9. Web 1.0 began to develop
From now, information become more
interconnected, websites started growing
in popularity, the web opened to business
and the public.
1989
References
Web 1.0 The term was coined in 1999 by Darcy Di Nucci and was popularized by Tim
O'Reilly at the O'Reilly Media

10. The web opened for commerce
The first commercial dialup ISP
(internet service provider) in the
United States was The World,
which is still active today.
On the right is what The World
used to look like in 1989
1989
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_(Internet_service_provider)

11. Marketing adopts digital trends
The first company to adopt a
marketing strategy to utilise
the internet was Apple in
1987.
The term ‘Digital Marketing'
appeared later, around 1990s,
to describe the engagement
with stakeholders through the
use of electronic devices.
1990
References
Mashable http://mashable.com/2012/09/25/the-evolution-of-digital-advertising-
infographic/
Image credits artfashion.am

12. The web becomes public
April 1993, CERN
announced that the
World Wide Web
technology would be
available for anyone to
use on a royalty-free
basis.
This is how the public
web used to look like
then…
1993
References
http://webfoundation.org/about/vision/history-of-the-web/

13. First public Web browser
Mosaic was the web
browser credited with
popularising the World
Wide Web and this is
how it used to look like
then...
1993
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldWideWeb
http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/birth-web

14. To regulate the Web, Sir
Tim Berners-Lee founded
the World Wide Web
Consortium.
W3C gives technical
support and guidelines
that aims to maximise
consensus about the web
content and to ensure
high standards.
The Web consortium
1994
References
http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/
http://www.w3.org/standards/

15. Yahoo was launched
Yahoo! Inc., one of the most
important multinational
Internet corporations, was
launched by Jerry Yang and
David Filo in Sunnyvale,
California.
This is what Yahoo! Used to
look like back then…
References
This is what Yahoo’s interface used to look like back in 2006
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6125914/How-20-popular-websites-looked-
when-they-launched.html
1994

16. Amazon was launched
Amazon, one of the most
important e- commerce
websites was founded by
Jeff Bezos, where everyone
could sell products.
Today Amazon is one of the
largest Internet based
companies in the US, and
this is what it used to look
like in 1994…
1994
References
This is what Amazon’s interface used to look like back in 1994
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6125914/How-20-popular-websites-looked-
when-they-launched.html

17. Netscape release
Netscape, once dominant browser, was founded in 1995. In the
firs web browser war Netscape lost to Internet Explorer
Netscape Today
1995
Netscape in 1995
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape
http://isp.netscape.com/

18. More browsers were born
Opera and Internet Explorer, other popular web browsers,
were first released in 1995.
This is how they looked back then…
1995
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape
http://isp.netscape.com/

19. 1996 Google came to be
Google, the most popular
search engine in the
West, began in January
1996 as a research project
by Larry Page and Sergey
Brin when they were both
PhD students at Stanford
University in Stanford,
California.
This is what Google’s
interface used to look like
back in 1996…
1996
References
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6125914/How-20-popular-websites-looked-
when-they-launched.html

20. Web 2.0 started developing
The web started to evolve from a broadcasting
platform to an interactive media through use of
blogs, applications and social media channels.
1999
References
Web 1.0 The term was coined in 1999 by Darcy Di Nucci and was popularized by Tim
O'Reilly at the O'Reilly Media
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-101.htm

21. Web 2.0 made of relationships
Businesses
Web
Users
Public
Bodies

22. Web 1.o vs. Web 2.0
Web
Platform
Web User
OrganisationsDocumentsWebsites
Web User

23. Web 1.0 Web 2.0
DoubleClick Google AdSense
Ofoto Flickr
Akamai BitTorrent
mp3.com Napster
Britannica Online Wikipedia
personal websites blogging
evite upcoming.org and EVDB
domain name speculation search engine optimization
page views cost per click
screen scraping web services
publishing participation
content management systems wikis
directories (taxonomy) tagging ("folksonomy")
stickiness syndication
References
O'Reilly Media

24. Baidu was launched
Baidu, the most popular
search engine in Asia,
was founded on 18th of
January 2000, by Robin Li.
This it is what the Chinese
web services company
looked like in 2000.
2000

25. Web was on mobile…
Ericsson R380 was a GSM
(Global System for Mobile)
mobile phone made
by Ericsson Mobile
Communications and was
the first device marketed as
a "smartphone“.
The device was capable of
connecting to the Web.
2000

26. Wikipedia was launched
One of the first websites that
allowed people to have a
more interactive relationship
with the Web.
The free-access/free content
Internet encyclopaedia is
supported and hosted by the
non-profit
Wikimedia Foundation.
This is how the website’s
logo changed over the
years…
2001
References
www.logoinlogo.com

27. Myspace was launched
One of the first social media
platforms and one of the main
contributors to the evolution of
the Web was Myspace.
The social network service, with
strong music emphasis was
founded by Tom Anderson and
Chris DeWolfe. It looked like
that…
Today it’s owned by Specific
Media LLC and pop music singer
and actor
Justin Timberlake
2003
References
This is what MySpace’s interface used to look like back in 2003
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6125914/How-20-popular-websites-looked-when-they-
launched.html

28. Safari was launched
Safari, Apple’s browser,
was Launched in 2003 by
Steve Jobs…
Competition between
browsers increased,
giving users a different
experience, interaction
and design.2003
References
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_ZNXQujgXw
https://www.apple.com/uk/safari/

29. WordPress was founded
One of the first and most
important CMS (content
management systems) based
on
PHP and MySQL was founded
in 2003 and it looked like
this…
The free and open source
blogging tool, which also
characterised the Web 2.0, is
today used by over 409
million people each month!
2003
References
http://en.wordpress.com/stats/

30. Digital jobs were created
New jobs were created through the use of internet to
satisfy commercial, or private demand on the market.
Many digital agencies were founded and offered a
combination of services for the Web to support business
growth.
2003
References
http://www.fingo.co.uk/who-we-are/

31. Firefox was released
Firefox, one of the most
popular browsers today, was
launched in 2004 looking like
this…
The browser has over 7%
market share today.
2004
References
http://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&qpcustomd=0

32. (the) Facebook was founded
Mark Zuckerberg with his
college roommates and
fellow students Eduardo
Saverin, Andrew McCollum,
Dustin Moskovitz and Chris
Hughes created the largest
today social media network at
the Harvard University .
It was initially named The
Facebook and it looked like
this…
2004
References
This is what Facebook’s interface used to look like back in 2004
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6125914/How-20-popular-websites-looked-when-they-
launched.html

33. WST was launched
To further support the
growing digital phenomena,
Tim Berners-Lee and
colleagues started the Web
Science Trust (WST).
WST is a charitable body
with the aim of supporting
the global development of
Web Science.2005
References
webscience.me

34. YouTube was founded
The service was created
by three former PayPal
employees in February
2005 and has been owned
by Google since late 2006.
References
History of You Tube’s Layout https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ckPPOpqNVc
2005

35. SEO became a web practice
SEO started emerging as
a practice of optimising
information for search
engines.
Dr. Clinton Cimring, is
credited by Google as
being the person who
invented the idea of SEO
2.0 and was the first
person to launch the
approach under SEO Treo
in 2006.
2006
References
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/who-invented-the-term-search-engine-optimization-part-
deux/3925/

36. Twitter was founded
Twitter is an online social
networking service that
enables users to send and
read short 140-character
messages called "tweets“
This is what Twitter used
to look like back then…
2006
References
This is what Twitter’s interface used to look like back in 2006
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6125914/How-20-popular-websites-looked-when-they-
launched.html

37. iPhone began to change
the web once again and
everything began to shift
towards catering to the
mobile user.
2007
Mobile access to the Web
References
www.mobify.com

38. Web pages were published
The Web reached 1 trillion public
pages!
2008

39. Responsive design
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Responsive_web_design
http://www.fingo.co.uk/blog/detail/responsive-design.-youve-probably-heard-it-mentioned-
now-let-us-explain-it/
2010
Since Web was now
accessed through various
platforms, there was a
need to adapt the
website technology
accordingly.
In 2010 Responsive
Design was born, coined
by Ethan Marcotte to
adapt a site's layout to a
device's display

40. The Web compared to other media
This is how other media reached
50 million users compared to the Web:
• Radio took 38 years
• Television took 13 years
• Web took 4 years
• Facebook took just 10 months
2013 References
Image credit accountablemedia.co.za

41. Search engine market share*
Country Leading Search Engine Market Share
USA Google 67%
UK Google 89%
China Baidu 62%
Russia Yandex 62%
2013 References
http://returnonnow.com/internet-marketing-resources/2013-search-engine-market-share-by-
country/
*as of 10th December 2014

42. World internet usage in 2013
WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS
December 31, 2013
World Regions
Population
( 2014 Est.)
Internet Users
Dec. 31, 2000
Internet Users
Latest Data
Penetration
(% Population)
Growth
2000-2014
Users %
of Table
Africa 1,125,721,038 4,514,400 240,146,482 21.3 % 5,219.6 % 8.6 %
Asia 3,996,408,007 114,304,000 1,265,143,702 31.7 % 1,006.8 % 45.1 %
Europe 825,802,657 105,096,093 566,261,317 68.6 % 438.8 % 20.2 %
Middle East 231,062,860 3,284,800 103,829,614 44.9 % 3,060.9 % 3.7 %
North America 353,860,227 108,096,800 300,287,577 84.9 % 177.8 % 10.7 %
Latin America / Caribbean 612,279,181 18,068,919 302,006,016 49.3 % 1,571.4 % 10.8 %
Oceania / Australia 36,724,649 7,620,480 24,804,226 67.5 % 225.5 % 0.9 %
WORLD TOTAL 7,181,858,619 360,985,492 2,802,478,934 39.0 % 676.3 % 100.0 %
2013
References
http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
http://returnonnow.com/internet-marketing-resources/2013-search-engine-market-share-by-
country/

43. Browsers market share October’14
References
http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
2014

44. Live updates on the web
The Web today is the
first source of
information for the
media.
BBC incorporates Twitter
for Live Updates
2014

45. Everyone uses the Web
2014
Oct. 24, 2014 Queen Elizabeth II Sent Her First Tweet

46. Information flow on the Internet
Organisations’
websites
Government/
Educational
Websites
Blogs
Social Media
Posts
Business
Websites

47. Web publications in 2014
Today the Web reached 60 trillion
public pages in 2014!
2014
References
http://www.google.co.uk/insidesearch/howsearchworks/thestory/

48. Web stats right now:
2014

49. Wish to learn more?
You
Might
Also
Like…
Check out the Evolution of Web Design
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/evolution-of-web-design/?wide=1
Check out The Death of Google Authorship
http://www.fingo.co.uk/blog/detail/the-death-of-google-authorship-and-
why-author-rank-is-still-relevant
Main Differences Between Automated and Bespoke
Business Reports
http://www.fingo.co.uk/blog/detail/bespoke-vs-automated-business-
analysis-report

50. Remember…
Sharing is Caring
&
A Mention is Appreciation!
Thank You