Technology and Engineering Atlas

How Things Are Built
Inventions

The World Wide Web

Also Known As The Web

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

The World Wide Web is a system of linked hypertext documents accessed over the internet. Tim Berners-Lee, working at CERN, wrote a proposal for it in March 1989, then built the first web browser and server and defined HTML, HTTP and the URL by Christmas 1990, releasing the software publicly on August 6, 1991. The Web is a service that runs over the internet rather than a synonym for it; the internet's own packet switched network predates the Web by two decades.

Facts
Patent or First-Use Date
1991-01-01 1
The source's own account is internally inconsistent: its infobox states first published 6 August 1991 while its History section prose states release to the whole Internet on 23 August 1991; the year is consistent across both, so only the year is asserted here.
Year
1989 2
Significance
The World Wide Web turned the internet from a specialist research network into the everyday medium for publishing, commerce and communication, and Berners-Lee and CERN's decision to release it royalty free is widely credited with its rapid global adoption. 2
Cross-Tradition Connections

In Field

Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors

Invented By

Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors

Preceded By

Source Encyclopaedia BritannicaEncyclopaedia Britannica editors
Sources
1. World Wide Web (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationHistory section
Quote, History section
The technology was released outside CERN to other research institutions starting in January 1991, and then to the whole Internet on 23 August 1991.
View the Source
2. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.