The Internet
Created | Updated Apr 1, 2002
The Internet came about in the 1970s when the US Department of Defense decided to create a method of communication which would allow top US scientists to easily communicate with one another, even in the event of a nuclear attack. Most universities, corporations, and military research centers already had their own computer networks, used for file sharing and email. A new super-network would connect all of the smaller networks to one another, allowing scientific colleagues around the country (and eventually, around the world) to freely share the latest scientific data. This new "Internet" would route data around broken segments of the network, so if a Soviet missle were to vaporize, say, Chicago, the rest of the network would still function properly.
Human nature being what it is, the Internet was soon used for much more personal matters. With the advent of the home computer in the 1980's, the number of users with access at home began to grow. HTML was invented as a way of posting data in 'pages' that would be accessible by various users, regardless of the user's operating system.
HTML documents had the ability to contain links to other documents elswhere on the Internet. Internet locations which chose to adhere to the standards of HTML were considered to be part of a "World Wide Web" of documents.
The explosion of home computing in the 1990s caused phenomenal growth in the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web. HTML was refined to allow for a greater degree of design, faster methods of access wre designed, until the Internet became the ubiquitous and constantly changing force it is today.
Human nature being what it is, the Internet was soon used for much more personal matters. With the advent of the home computer in the 1980's, the number of users with access at home began to grow. HTML was invented as a way of posting data in 'pages' that would be accessible by various users, regardless of the user's operating system.
HTML documents had the ability to contain links to other documents elswhere on the Internet. Internet locations which chose to adhere to the standards of HTML were considered to be part of a "World Wide Web" of documents.
The explosion of home computing in the 1990s caused phenomenal growth in the Internet, particularly the World Wide Web. HTML was refined to allow for a greater degree of design, faster methods of access wre designed, until the Internet became the ubiquitous and constantly changing force it is today.
