It’s late 1990, and while the world is focused on the end of the Cold War, something quiet but revolutionary is happening at CERN in Switzerland. A physicist named Tim Berners-Lee has been working on a project he calls the "World Wide Web." He’s using his NeXT Cube to build a system that could change how we share information forever.
The Three Pillars: HTML, HTTP, and URI
The beauty of the Web is its simplicity. It’s built on three very straightforward concepts:
- HTML (HyperText Markup Language): A simple way to structure documents with links.
- HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): A lightweight protocol for fetching those documents.
- URI (Universal Resource Identifier): A way to give every single piece of information a unique address.
On his NeXT machine, Tim has already written the first web browser (which is also an editor!) and the first web server. I’ve seen it in action, and the ability to click on a word and instantly be transported to another document, even on a different server, is exhilarating.
<!-- The very first version of HTML is incredibly simple -->
<TITLE>CERN - World Wide Web</TITLE>
<H1>What is the Web?</H1>
<P>The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area
<A HREF="http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html">
hypermedia</A> information retrieval initiative...</P>
Why NeXT?
Tim chose the NeXT computer because its development environment allowed him to build the prototype in a fraction of the time it would have taken on a Mac or a PC. The built-in networking and the "Interface Builder" made it the perfect platform for a project that is all about connections.
Looking Ahead
Right now, the Web is mostly for researchers and physicists, and there are many competing hypertext systems like Gopher or WAIS. But the Web has one advantage: it's open and it's decentralized. There's no central authority. I suspect that as more people get their hands on browsers for other platforms, this "web" of information is going to grow exponentially. It might just turn the whole world into a single, giant library.
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