World’s First Website Went Live 25 Years Ago Today

Many of us take the internet for granted these days considering the fact that it has significantly advanced over the past few years, however it’s interesting to note that all of this has happened in a relatively short span of time. If you didn’t already know, it was 25 years ago today when the very first website went online. Just 25 years, and when you compare that with the power of the internet today, it certainly boggles the mind.

It was back on December 20th, 1990 that the first website called Tim Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web went live at CERN, though contrary to popular belief, that’s not the day this website went public. That happened a few months later on August 6th, 1991, nevertheless it’s a very important moment in the history of the internet.

If you’re interested to find out what the world’s first website looked like when it went online you’ll be happy to find out that A 1992 version is still available online. CERN explains that it basically details the features of the web, “how to access other people’s documents and how to set up your own server,” that sort of stuff.

Berners-Lee is still around and very much involved, directing the World Wide Web Consortium which he was instrumental in creating. He has been working to protect the open web against censorship by governments as well as efforts to harm net neutrality. CERN, however, is not as involved as before, since it has moved on to focus on answering existential questions.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Web
Tags: CERN, internet