Encyclopedia Britannica defines The World Wide Web – often simply called ‘the Web,’ – as a global information system that allows users to access and share information over the Internet. It was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 while working at CERN, a scientific organisation in Switzerland.

In simple terms, the Web’s history can be explained as follows:

Creation (1989-1991): Tim Berners-Lee developed the first web server, web browser, and the core technologies of the Web, including HTML, HTTP, and URLs. We will address these abbreviations and terms in the later pieces of the “Science Behind Romy and Roby.”

Early growth (1991-1993): The Web started spreading, primarily among scientific institutions. By October 1993, there were over 500 web servers online, according to Wikipedia.

Popularisation (1993 – 1994): The release of the Mosaic web browser in 1993 (an invention by Marc Andreessen, who is today one of the most prominent technologists and investors/ venture capitalists globally) made the Web more user-friendly and accessible to the public. We often compare the release of ChatGPT 3 and the introduction of the Mosaic browser. ChatGPT 3 of OpenAI popularised the use of conversational AI globally.

Commercialisation (1995-2000): Commercial restrictions on Internet use were removed, leading to rapid growth and the dot-com boom.

Web 2.0 era (early 2000s): Interactive and user-generated content became more prevalent. Dynamic websites and social media (e.g., Facebook) were introduced. At the same time, advertising-based business models got tested, allowing users to connect to the Web for free, but trading this freedom with providing unlimited access to their personal data.

Mobile Web (late 2000s – present): Smartphones and tablets made accessing the Web on mobile devices increasingly common. As an example, in China alone, there are 1,08 billion users of mobile web. AI technologies progressed and started to facilitate web products and services. First companies’ valuations of trillion dollars appeared. All of these were businesses capitalising on either building chipsets for AI infrastructure (e.g., Nvidia), or developing services for computers and mobile devices, like search (Google), social networks (Facebook), mobile communication (Apple and Google), e-commerce (Amazon), and enterprise products (Google, Amazon, and Microsoft).

The Web is not the same as the Internet, rather, it is a service that operates on top of the Internet infrastructure.

We will explore the trends of web decentralisation in the third book, “Romy, Roby and the Lying Trolls.” Often, the push for decentralization is motivated by the desire to give users control over their personal data, ensuring that those who generate the data retain ownership and authority over it.