Can you believe that the World Wide Web is 25 years old?

Question

However, the internet was around before then. I remember watching movies about the military, large business organisations and most educational institutions had some sort of computer link with each other. There may have not been a search engine yet but these agencies would send information through a computer link. I do know that emails were first used by Universities in the early 1970s.

So, can you really believe that the www is 25 years old?

Did anyone use the web during the first few years of its infancy?

So, can you really believe that the www is 25 years old? 
Did anyone use the web during the first few years of its infancy?

mdigitale · Accepted Answer

Yes, 25 years has gone quickly in some respects.

Generally, the World Wide Web (www) refers to the advent of the Hyper Text Transport Protocol (HTTP).  This is the technology that allows a user to view web pages in a graphical browser and navigate to other pages via hyperlinks (e.g. via a mouse).  This type of interface made it easy for novices to use the Internet.

You are correct that the WWW is not the Internet.  Many other protocols existed well before HTTP.  Some of these include FTP (file transfer), SMTP (email), etc., etc.

Originally the Internet was primarily used to link military and universities together for research (DARPA net).  Tech savvy computer users would operate and use Computer Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) back in the day.  These BBS systems would offer messaging, file transfer, gaming, etc.  As Internet availability increased and personal computers became more affordable and popular to own, BBSes faded into history and everyone moved to the Internet.

I have to say, I don't miss my 300 baud modem.

Jim · Answer

I first started using a computer in 1970. It was a teletype terminal with paper tape reader/writer using a 110 baud (bps) acoustic modem to connect from my school in Ohio to a mainframe computer in Minnesota.

My, how times have changed.

I know a few people who began using the internet in the early 90's. I wasn't one of them, I preferred calling local BBSes. I made dozens of REAL friends that way (a REAL friend is someone you've met face to face).

? · Answer

I got my first computer in 1979 and I remember dialing into certain places. You could then download games, chat and file share. I miss the old days of DOS in some ways. I also remember when AOL first started and you paid by the minute. We all thought it was so cool until the first months bill...mine was over $300 but my sister had a $700 bill.

Andy T · Answer

Yeah, US military and US-based academics used it that long. I started it around 2 decades ago since my junior high was participating a high-speed trial, if I remember right it must be Cantel up here in Canada not much content just loading full-sized pics of wild animals.

oneofthe504th · Answer

Yeah, my school had a CDC 6600 when I was learning programming. You'd feed your cards into a hopper, and you could eventually get a printout of your fortran program. 65,000 60-bit words of memory made it a supercomputer. At the time BBS were the thing, the Interwebs weren't quite there.

Anonymous · Answer

You can watch it for free using: http://is.gd/bestflix

Can you believe that the World Wide Web is 25 years old?

6 Answers