Ryan Knigge
April Carothers
Writing 115
27 November 2011
Revolution of the internet; Revolution of the world
Imagine a time when getting on the computer was so boring that most of the public wouldn’t bother with it. A time when the internet was so simple there was no color; there weren’t even graphics. As for hyperlinks..They didn’t exist; before the function of a URL was even possible. Imagine waiting up to three hours to download a single program. This is just little taste of what it was like to use a computer until the year 1993. April 30, 1993 the launch of the first Worldwide Web with multimedia hypertext was born (Text displayed on a computer with references.) Contemplate the internet in current times. The technological advances that we use today would not be possible without the forthcoming of a company known as CERN, and the invention of the web. The establishment to the Worldwide Web was a massive accomplishment. A research laboratory by the name of CERN (Conseil Européenne pour la Recherché Nucleaire; located in switzerland) invented a new type of internet function that offered much more than the simple boring, single font existing internet. CERN had a goal to “Further compatibility, common practices, and standards in networking and computer supported collaboration." Says Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the Worldwide Web.) In other words, the internet required a more efficient program to navigate through the mass of info on the net, thus the w3 (Worldwide Web) was born. Before the creation of the web computers were not relevant to everyday society as they are now. In fact, the basis of the internet was created to communicate primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications such as industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing. As time progressed people who owned computers used the net for communication by email or for news group facilities, which was only possible if both parties were online. That is until the year 1993. “The internet (net) is a network of networks. Basically it is made from computers and cables. What Vint Cerf and Bob Khan did was to figure out how this could be used to send around little “packets” of information. As Vint points out, a packet is a bit like a postcard with a simple address on it. If you put the right address on the packet, and give it to any computer which is connected as a part of the net,each computer would figure out which cable to send it down next so that it would get to its destination. That’s what the internet does. It delivers packets- anywhere in the world, normally well under a second.” –Tim Berners-Lee. The futuristic web was based on what we know as HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and http or hypertext protocol. Basically HTML was used to tag the elements of a hypertext document (Text displayed on computer), so that http could transfer the viewer automatically to a new link if necessary. This new program known as the w3 introduced many new possibilities for the internet world. Although the web was now accessible; navigation through the web was still challenging and time consuming…so a man by the name of Mark Andreesen set out to change this. He introduced a software application called Mosaic X (Web Browser) the year 1993, which was significantly easier to access, it was faster, and incredibly easy to install compared to earlier applications. Not only that, but Mosaic X introduced a new kind of graphic design. Instead of looking at a page filled with words all of the same font, this browser allowed different types of fonts available in different sizes; along with the possibility to view pictures on the screen together with those fonts. Before this upgrade of net navigation, to look at a picture you would have to open a separate link that would take hours to load sometimes. Talk about technological advances. Mosaic X arranged the web in such a manner that usage of the web went from “… 150 web sites to 3,000 within a single year. Also this new software application would influence the mind of people like the famous Bill Gates to invent a similar but more efficient web browser known today as Internet Explorer. Because of this new navigation systems possibilities, use of the web would finally explode and develop a new sense of communication across the world. Now that a new sense of communication was available to the public the world changed in dramatic ways. Ultimately the Worldwide Web in 1993; throughout the 90’s; set off what is known as the “internet boom” or mass commercial growth of the internet. The advances of the web would promote a skyrocket affect in production. Ratings in the year “93” for the public started at just 50 websites and too few hosts to count. “In 1994 there were 3,2 mln hosts and 3,000 web-sites. Twelve months later the number of hosts had doubled and the number of web-sites had climbed to 25,000.By the end of the next year the number of host computers had doubled again, and the number of web-sites had increased by more than ten-fold”… “By 1997, the number of host computers integrated into the Web had reached 19,5 mln hosts, and the number of web-sites had shot up to 1,2 million. By the last count, in January 2001, the number of hosts stood at 110 million and the number of web-sites had reached 30 million." In just a few years, Production of the web had introduce itself as one of the main sources of communication globally. What most people don’t realize is that computers rely on microprocessors which act as the brain of technology; accepting digital data as input, processing the info according to instructions in memory, and processing an answer as the output. In time to come, this “brain” for technology would be revolutionized to be faster, smarter, stronger, and even portable. Today items such I phones, and androids, or tablets like the I pad are existent because of the development of the computer and the worldwide web as a whole. The revolutionary w3 was so significant to the year 1993 because it changed the niche use of computers in the technical area to a mass market appeal, and for the first time it was available to the public. The public loved it and soon enough they wanted more. More advancements, and faster technology. This is where computers had the greatest impact on the earth. They set off a major boom in all ranges of mass market and its capabilities; not only that but what it offered to the public. Every year after 1993 only became more advanced and more capable with less recourses. The year 1993 had a bigger picture then just computers and the worldwide web; it changed the world as it was and introduced it to a new way of living.
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