The internet is one of the necessities in the 21st century, however, we also hear many people calling it the useless web. But the bottom line is, that we cannot live without it and our work and lives revolve around it. Did you know when was the first website launched? Not many people know about the interesting story of the world’s very 1st website.
Once upon a time, in the 1980s, a British Computer wizard, Tim Berners-Lee worked at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). He headed and developed the WWW (World Wide Web) project in 1989.
The Birth of the world’s first website:
Bernes-Lee struggled to keep up with the hundreds of documents scattered everywhere and on different computers. Then, he came up with the idea of keeping all the documents in one place, like on a website. He also wanted to share and also gain access to information from other scientists around the globe. Therefore, he wanted easy access and sharing of information, data, and resources.
So, the first webpage was born on August 6, 1991. The webpage provided information on the World Wide Web project. The website was hosted on a NeXT computer at CERN.
Fun Fact 1:
Bernes-Lee, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates, the three computer wizards share the same birth year of 1955.
Fun Fact 2:
NeXT computer used by Bernes-Lee was designed by Steve Jobs.
Fun Fact 3:
Bernes-Lee saved a copy of the first original website onto a floppy disc.
However, in order for the website to work, Bernes-Lee first developed the foundations and backbone of the internet. So, he developed:
- HyperText Markup Language (or HTML)
- HyperText Transfer Protocol (or HTTP) and
- Uniform Resource Locators (or URLs).
- A basic browser and
- Web server software.
What did the first website look like?
The website back in 1991 had a retro feel to it. See the image below:
Sadly, the first website was lost somewhere in the crowd. Then in 2013, CERN started the hunt to find and revive the first webpage. Thanks to several computer enthusiasts and scientists, a copy of the webpage was found on the floppy disk saved by Bernes-Lee. So, now the webpage is restored and you can visit the webpage here.
It’s fascinating to know that the webpage was just information about the World Wide Web, the meaning of technical words, frequently asked questions, etc.
Post-launch of the 1st website:
After the launch of the 1st website, the internet took off like a wildfire. There was a 1000% rise in website numbers by 1992. This means, that in 1 year there were 10 live web pages.
When we look at the internet now, there is exponential growth. Even IPv4 addresses are exhausted. To ensure IP addresses continue to be available, the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) developed IPv6.
How many websites are there in the world in 2022?
As of January 2022, there are 1,167,715,133 websites. Out of these 198,988,100 websites are active. This number is growing every second.
First Hosting Company:
The first hosting company is 1&1 internet from Germany in 1989. Then Metropolitan Fiber Systems (MFS) started the first colocation hosting service in 1992. MFS also provided network services to a few local ISPs. Later, Geocities and Tripod introduced free hosting in 1995. Eventually, they monetized the website through banner ads.
The Hosting industry also evolved tremendously in all these years. Today, one can opt for different Hosting solutions, like Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Reseller Hosting, etc.
First Web Browser:
The first web browser was Mosaic, created by Marc Andreesen and Eric Bina in 1993. Mosaic gave the internet a boom.
The W3C:
Eventually, Bernes-Lee left CERN to join MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) in 1994. While here, he founded the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Therefore, W3C is an organization that maintains web standards.
We at Alpha InfoLab really enjoyed learning and writing about the first webpage. We hope you enjoy reading it as much.
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