The Internet, as we know it today, has a long and multifaceted history. Its origins date back to the 1960s when the US Department of Defense began developing a network called ARPANET. This network was intended to connect research institutions and universities to facilitate communication and information exchange. A notable example of ARPANET’s application was the transmission of the first email by Ray Tomlinson in 1971, a milestone that laid the foundation for the extensive use of emails as we know it today.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the network was continuously expanded and refined, with new technologies and standards being introduced, including TCP/IP, the fundamental protocol of the Internet, and the Domain Name System (DNS), which allows complex IP addresses to be replaced by human-readable names.
The development of Web 1.0 began in the early 1990s and marks the advent of the World Wide Web. Web 1.0 is often referred to as the „readable“ web as it was mainly about providing information to users. It involved static web pages that were created with HTML. Interaction was very limited and often restricted to simple form entries or email links. A good example of a Web 1.0 website is the original CERN website, created by Tim Berners-Lee, which was the first website ever. It was a simple source of information, providing basic information about the World Wide Web for interested parties.
With the release of the Mosaic browser in 1993, considered the first widespread web browser, the web became accessible to many people. It was also the first browser capable of embedding images directly into the pages, making the web visually appealing and paving the way for the web as we know it today.
However, compared to today’s web, Web 1.0 was relatively primitive. Websites were mostly static and offered little to no interactivity. There were no social networks or blogs, and users could not easily create and share their own content. Another illustrative example of the limitations of Web 1.0 is the original Amazon website. It offered only a limited number of books for sale and did not allow users to write reviews or interact with others, which today is an integral part of the Amazon experience. Nevertheless, Web 1.0 laid the groundwork for the development of the Internet and paved the way for the emergence of Web 2.0, which comes with greater interactivity and user participation.
The history of the Internet is thus a story of continuous development and improvement, from its beginnings as a research network to a ubiquitous communication and information medium. Although Web 1.0 seems limited compared to today’s capabilities, it laid the foundation for the extensive interactivity and user participation that we now associate with the web.
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