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The Web is 20 Years Old Today

By Noah | December 25, 2010

Twenty years ago today, on December 25th, 1990, Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau first successfully connected a browser to a Web server — the Web as an operational system is 20 years old today.

Topics: History of computing, Web, Internet, Computing | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “The Web is 20 Years Old Today”

  1. Ken Says:
    March 31st, 2011 at 12:31 PM

    I thought Al Gore invented the internet? 🙂

  2. Noah Says:
    March 31st, 2011 at 1:49 PM

    Ken wrote:

    > “I thought Al Gore invented the Internet?”

    I know you’re poking fun, but it’s really worth setting the record straight. In 2007 I had the privilege of participating as a speaker at an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of NSFNet NSFNet is the acknowledged precursor of today’s Internet, and as you can see from the program, most of the big names in Internet history were there (Vint Cerf, Robert Kahn, etc., etc.).

    Someone made the Al Gore joke, and the response from several of the noteworthy speakers was: “look, almost nobody in the US Government did what Al Gore did to promote the success of the Internet. He drove hearings at a time when others didn’t appreciate the significance, and helped to put in place funding that helped build much of the infrastructure.” According to Snopes, what Gore actually said was:

    During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

    As far as I know, that’s true, and it’s gratefully acknowledged by those who did create the technical standards for the Internet’s infrastructure.

    Noah

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