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Invention of internet
Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist at CERN, invented the World Wide Web. The web was originally conceived and developed to meet the demand for automatic information-sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the world. -
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Growth of internet
Early websites mixed links for both the HTTP web protocol and the then-popular Gopher protocol, which gained access to content through hypertext menus shown as a file system rather than through HTML files. Early Web users would navigate either by bookmarking popular directory pages, such as Berners-Lee's first site at http://info.cern.ch/. Some sites were also indexed by WAIS, enabling users to submit full-text searches similar to the capability later provided by search engines. -
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Commercialization of the Web
By 1996 it became obvious to most publicly traded companies that a public Web presence was no longer optional. Though at first people saw mainly the possibilities of free publishing and instant worldwide information, increasing familiarity with two-way communication over the "Web" led to the possibility of direct Web-based commerce (e-commerce) and instantaneous group communications worldwide. More dotcoms, displaying products on hypertext webpages, were added into the Web. -
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"Dot-com" concept
A number of new entrepreneurs had realistic plans and administrative ability, most of them lacked these characteristics but were able to sell their ideas to investors because of the novelty of the dot-com concept. The dot-com boom could be seen as similar to a number of other technology-inspired booms of the past including automobiles in the early 20th century, radio in the 1920s, television in the 1940s, computer time-sharing in the 1960s, and home computers and biotechnology in the 1980s. -
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The Web becomes gobal
After the dot-com bubble, ongoing investment in local cell infrastructure kept connectivity charges low, helping to make high-speed Internet connectivity more affordable. During this time, a handful of companies found success developing business models that helped make the World Wide Web a more compelling experience. These include airline booking sites, Google's search engine and its approach to keyword-based advertising, as well as eBay's auction site and Amazon.com's online department store.