Origins of the Internet
During the 1960s, the United States Department of Defense funded a project known as ARPANET. The goal was to create a decentralized communication network that could continue functioning even if parts of it were damaged or disconnected.
In 1969, ARPANET successfully connected computers at several California universities. This marked the first practical implementation of a computer network resembling the modern internet. During the 1970s, researchers continued improving networking technology and developed protocols that allowed different computer systems to communicate with one another.
The Internet continued to develop throughout the 1980's and 1990's by academics as a means to transmit research data between universities, professors, research teams, etc.
Because of this academic beginning, and the limitations of the technology of the time, the documents transmitted were text based, and bore little resemblance to the colorful and graphic websites we see today.
During the 1980's, Domain name systems (DNS) were introduced, making it easier for users to access websites using readable names instead of numerical IP addresses. At the same time, personal computers became more common in homes and workplaces, increasing interest in digital communication. Services such as email began transforming how people exchanged information, allowing messages to travel around the world almost instantly.
A major turning point occurred in 1989 when Tim Berners-Lee proposed the creation of the World Wide Web while working at CERN. Berners-Lee developed technologies such as HTML, HTTP, and web browsers, which made navigating the internet far more accessible to ordinary users. In the 1990s, the web rapidly gained popularity as businesses, schools, and individuals created websites. Browsers like Netscape Navigator and later Internet Explorer helped bring the internet into mainstream culture.
In 1993, the internet accounted for just 1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunications networks. By 2000, that number jumped to 51%, and by 2007 the internet accounted for 97% of all telecommunications information.
As more people gained access to the Internet via easier to use and consumer oriented web browsers, a greater number of formatting standards were borrowed from print media to provide website pages a sense of uniformity and the graphic presentation consumers were used to.
While the Internet of today bears little outward resemblance to its original concept, many of the text-based rules upon which it was founded still apply.