The internet as we know it today is a far cry from its early beginning and those humble origins arose out of a simple vision: to share information efficiently among researchers. Starting as a static network of hyperlinked pages, the web has grown into the web we know today, an entire ecosystem of dynamic content that shapes how to investigate, shop, and entertain ourselves. From its inception with HTML to the modern wonders of web technology, we’re going to take you through the history of web development.
In context of Indian web development, the phenomenon of outsourcing services to India dates back to the 1980s and gathered momentum in the 1990s.In today’s business environment, where information technology has become a key enabler of business growth, outsourcing, particularly in the area of information technology, has metamorphosed radically from the traditional way businesses viewed it. Companies now decide upon what they are good at or the defining strength of their firm and outsource non-core functions that do not define the company, which the company does not have strength in, to an external partner.
From Vision to Web: The Early Days (1980s-1990s)
Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist at CERN, began the web in 1989. Berners-Lee, frustrated with how researchers passed around a mishmash of formats for information, posited a hypertext system that interconnected documents would make things easier, and by 1991 he had built the first web server and client, and created the blueprint for the first webpage.
The foundational technology of the web, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), arrived in 1991. The simple language allowed developers to structure documents and include hyperlinks, providing the building blocks of early websites. These were predominantly text-based, offering minimal formatting and little interactivity. The first website, launched in 1991, detailed information on the web project itself.
As the web grew, so too did a need for visual appeal and structure. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) began to arrive in the mid-90s It separated the presentation from structure, allowing developers to style websites independently with layout, color and fonts, all without altering the content.
Though, early web pages remained static. Interactivity arrived with JavaScript in 1995. A scripting language, it added the sort of dynamic elements developers needed to build more engaging experiences. User inputs, animation and basic calculations, JavaScript’s arrival in 95′ set the web we know today in motion.
Top 5 sites
CERN – World Wide Web Project: The birthplace of the World Wide Web, CERN’s website offered information on what the project was for and the principles that guided it. Created by Tim Berners-Lee himself, and with help from his team, this website played a vital role in furthering the development of the web.
IMDb: Founded in 1990, Internet Movie Database’s initial logo was an illustrative design before the site launched in 1993. The site provided searchable indexes of films, television, and professionals in the entertainment industry.Turtlemeat’s Entertainment – History of IMDbYahoo!: Yahoo! was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1994. Starting as “Jerry’s guide to the World Wide Web,” it was a directory of other websites. It was later named Yahoo! and went on to become a leading search engine, email, and news provider.amazon: Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in 1994 as a bookstore, which eventually grew into the world’s largest online retailer, selling everything from A to Z as its smile logo suggests. It’s incredible success made Bezos a multi-billionaire. amazon.comWhite House: The White House – History channel description “Learn about the history of The White House, the official residence and workplace of the President of the United States.space jam: Launched in 1996 as a promotional website for the movie, Space Jam was filled with games and activities that fans of the movie can still access to this very day.
Netscape — One of the earliest web browsers, Netscape’s website offered downloads, updates, bug reports, and support for its users. Once the dominant way of accessing the web, its rise to popularity was a major factor in developing many of the internet’s features and eventually bowing down to the crushing force of IE in the First Browser War.
The New York Times — The New York Times has long been the paper of record in the United States, and its website featured online breaking news, in-depth news analysis, features, and opinion pieces. From the very beginning, old media sought to transform into new media with its own print products.
GeoCities — Launched in the mid-90s, GeoCities was one of the first web hosting services that allowed users to create their own websites and communities. Its website was a directory of user-created content divided into topics and presented in “neighborhood” formats for the early web. It still (in spirit) exists, by the way, under the stewardship of someone who very much wants to resurrect it.
Angelfire — Like GeoCities, Angelfire provided free web hosting to users along with its own site-building tools. Its homepage offered templates, tips on site creation, and tons of examples to help users get started.
Web 1.0: The Read-Only Web (1990s-2000s)
This era, often referred to as Web 1.0, was characterized by static websites primarily used for information dissemination. Individuals and organizations created personal pages or online brochures, but user interaction was limited. While basic e-commerce platforms emerged, most online interactions were one-directional.
Web 1.0 saw the rise of iconic internet destinations like Yahoo, AltaVista, and AOL, serving as directories and portals to navigate the growing web. Search engines like Google began to crawl and index websites, making information discovery more efficient.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, the internet experienced rapid growth and innovation, leading to the emergence of numerous influential websites that shaped the digital landscape. Here are ten notable websites from that era:
Google: Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google quickly became the dominant search engine on the internet. Its minimalist homepage and powerful search algorithms revolutionized the way people find information online.
Yahoo!: In the 1990s and early 2000s Yahoo! was one of the most popular internet portals, offering a range of services including search, email, news, and directories. Its website served as a gateway for millions of users worldwide.
eBay: Founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar, eBay was one of the earliest and most successful online marketplaces. Its website technology poured millions of dollars worth goods via auctions and fixed-price listings, connecting buyers and sellers across the globe.
Amazon: Initially an online bookstore, Amazon expanded rapidly in the late 1990s to become one of the internet’s largest e-commerce platforms. Its website technology delivered a large volume of goods at competitive prices with convenient shopping features.
MSN: A popular destination for gaining access to news, entertainment, email and other services, Microsoft’s MSN website was the centerpiece of the company’s internet efforts.
AOL: In the 1990s, America Online was the king of internet service providers. A dial-up customer needed only to know how to spell “internet” to access AOL’s email, chat rooms, news, weather and the rapidly growing collection of political memes.
YouTube: Founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, YouTube is the website that forever changed how we share video. Its users can upload, share and view videos on just about any topic.
Wikipedia: Since its launch on January 15, 2001, the free encyclopedia has been written and edited collaboratively by volunteers from around the globe. The site includes entries on more topics than you can imagine.
MySpace: In the early days of social networking, there was MySpace. It was responsible for much of the growth in the number of young internet users in the second half of the ‘00s. Its users’ personal profiles — and the not-safe-for-work personal profiles of some of their favorite artists — gave us a chance to see the web in a whole new way.
CNN: Cable News Network, one of the world’s leading news websites, brought updated news coverage, analysis, and multimedia content to the global events category. CNN’s website played an important role in shaping how news is shared with the public and how people are informed of significant events around the world.
Web 2.0: The Rise of User-Generated Content and Social Interaction (2000s-2010s)
Web 2.0, which was characterized by user-generated content and interactivity, came to the fore in the 2000s. It was a time of great change as the debut of services like blogs, social networks (Myspace, Facebook), video-sharing (YouTube), and more saw ordinary people becoming creators of things, offering up thoughts, experiences, and creations of all types.
Web 2.0 technologies made communication and collaboration efficient and easy. Wikis like Wikipedia democratized knowledge sharing, while products like ICQ, MSN Messenger, and the predecessors of Google Chat allowed for real-time, text-based communication. E-commerce also grew more popular, with platforms like Amazon and eBay offering personalized experiences for buying goods.
This was when dynamic web frameworks started to take hold; Ruby on Rails and Django combined rapid development capabilities with a particularly powerful and easy-to-use design pattern for interactive applications. Web APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) let one website borrow information from another, making it possible for entirely new kinds of services — and entirely new classes of mashups — to appear.
The 2000s and 2010s were filled with new sites that forever changed the digital landscape. As people’s interests and needs evolved, new sites emerged to help them find information, watch video, share updates with friends, join groups and much more. Here are 10 of the most popular and influential websites from the 2000s and 2010s:
Facebook- Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook quickly became the world’s largest social networking site. The website allowed users to connect with friends, share updates, photos and videos, join groups and events and more.
YouTube- Acquired by Google in 2006, YouTube remained the web’s leading video sharing site. The website allowed users to upload, view, and share content from across a wide range of topics including entertainment, education and others.
Twitter- Launched in 2006, Twitter popularized microblogging and real-time communications over the web. The website allowed users to post short messages (tweets) up to 280 characters, follow other users and engage in conversations on all sorts of topics.
Wikipedia- As one of the web’s largest and most comprehensive online encyclopedias, Wikipedia remained a go-to source of information on a wide range of topics. The website allowed users to access and contribute to a vast repository of knowledge written and edited collaboratively by people from around the world.
Instagram- Acquired by Facebook in 2012, Instagram quickly established itself as one of the largest and most influential photo sharing sites. The website allowed users to apply a variety of unique filters to their photos before sharing them with their friends.
Amazon. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Amazon remained the dominant force in e-commerce with a massive selection and competitive pricing combined with shopping features that made buying as simple as a click. Its website created a shopping experience that millions of people undertook everyday.
Netflix. Founded in 1997, their DVD rental service in the 2000s expanded to include a streaming service that ended up revolutionizing the way people viewed entertainment. Their website allowed people to watch thousands of movies and TV shows on their computer by streaming, and eventually their phone, after downloading the app.
Reddit. Founded in 2005, Reddit quickly became one of the largest and most read news aggregation and discussion platforms that a good chunk of the internet could be found on. The website allowed registered community members to submit text posts, images, and direct links to inform and entertain, and vote and comment on said posts.
Instagram. Launched in 2010, Instagram quickly shot to the top of the social media totem pole as a place to post photos and videos and see those of fellow users. The website lets you upload-and-filter photos and videos and share them with followers.
LinkedIn. Founded in 2002, by 2015, it was the world’s largest professional networking platform. Its website helped professionals connect, share insights, and even find or let others know about job opportunities.
Google: Google’s website continued to be a port of call for internet users, offering a vast array of services, including search, email (Gmail), maps, productivity tools (Google Docs), and more. Google was in a state of constant innovation, continuing to expand its offerings throughout the 2000s and 2010s, and fundamentally changing the way people access and interact with information online.
These websites are just a snapshot of the vast and varied internet landscape in the 2000s and 2010s. From social networking and e-commerce, to information sharing and entertainment, they reflect the evolving needs and interests of users in an increasingly interconnected world.
Web 3.0: The Dawn of the Semantic Web and Decentralization (2010s – Present)
The present era, Web 3.0, focuses on machine-readable data and decentralized protocols. Semantic Web technologies allow data on the Web to be understood and processed by machines, leading to smarter search and data analysis. Blockchain, a protocol that provides the technological and cryptographic backbone for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, restores the Web to its free, decentralized state, bypassing traditional digital gatekeepers by distributing data and control across a network, instead of storing it in private servers.
The next era’s applications run on intelligent machines and deliver personalized content and experiences, with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning helping to deliver smart interactions. Voice assistants such as Apple Siri and Amazon Alexa will allow you to interact naturally with the smart Web using voice.
The prevalence of mobile devices signaled a major shift in web development. Responsive web design ensures websites adapt to different screen sizes, guaranteeing a great user experience regardless of the device they are using.
Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) further blurred the line between websites and native mobile apps, offering offline functionality, push notifications, and app-like features that can be accessed directly through your browser, no download required.
As we continue to find our way through Web 3.0, a landscape marked by decentralization, blockchain technology, and enhanced digital experiences, a few significant websites of the 2010s and beyond have been at the forefront of shaping our digital future.
Meta (formerly Facebook): Meta’s website is the front door to its metaverse aspirations, through which you can access the company’s virtual reality platforms, such as the workplace collaboration tool Horizon Workrooms or its various social experiences, like the “Facebook” and Instagram of now. As Meta invests in virtual reality and augmented reality and explores how it might leverage decentralized technologies, the company’s website remains a glimpse into its vision for the future of social interaction and digital connectivity.
Crypto.com: As a leading cryptocurrency platform, Crypto.com’s website provides a comprehensive suite of services including a cryptocurrency exchange, a wallet, a Visa card, and DeFi (decentralized finance) capabilities. Crypto.com is bridging the gap between traditional finance and the decentralized economy with a focus on accessibility and user experience.
NFT Marketplace (e.g., OpenSea): NFT (non-fungible token) marketplaces such as OpenSea have exploded in popularity, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade digital collectibles, art, and virtual assets. By leveraging blockchain technology, these platforms provide verifiable ownership and provenance for digital assets, marking the beginning of a new era of digital ownership and expression.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Platforms (e.g., Aave, Compound): DeFi platforms offer decentralized financial services such as lending, borrowing, and trading, all without the need for traditional intermediaries (e.g., banks). Websites such as Aave and Compound give users access to decentralized lending protocols, which means they can earn interest on their cryptocurrency holdings or borrow funds against collateral.
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) (e.g., DAOstack): DAOs are systems of collective governance and decision-making on the blockchain, enabling members to vote on and fund proposals, allocate resources, and update a platform’s blueprint. Websites like DAOstack provide the tools and framework for creating and managing DAOs, accelerating the rate at which decentralized organizations can collaborate and coordinate at scale.
Blockchain Explorers (e.g., Etherscan, Blockchain.com): Blockchain explorers allow users to inspect, scan, and analyze transaction data and other metrics on a public blockchain like Ethereum or Bitcoin. Websites like Etherscan and Blockchain.com help users track and analyze real-time data on transactions, blocks, and addresses, gaining valuable insight into the underlying network.
Decentralized Storage (e.g., Filecoin, IPFS): Decentralized storage platforms have emerged from blockchain tech to offer secure, censorship-resistant storage solutions. Websites like Filecoin and IPFS allow users to store and retrieve data in a truly decentralized way by leveraging a network of nodes to avoid any single point of failure, ensuring files are redundantly stored and available.
Web3 Browsers (e.g., Brave, Opera): Web3 browsers integrate blockchain and decentralized tech directly into the browsing experience, providing built-in cryptocurrency wallets, access to dApps, decentralized domain resolution, and more. Websites like Brave and Opera help users seamlessly interact with Web3 applications and services while shielding their privacy and enhancing their security.
Blockchain Gaming (e.g., Axie Infinity, The Sandbox): Blockchain gaming platforms integrate gaming with blockchain technology, allowing gamers to own and trade in-game assets as NFTs that can be monetized. Platforms like Axie Infinity and The Sandbox provide immersive gaming experiences with assets that are hosted on blockchain networks, giving players new possibilities for asset ownership and economic involvement.
Decentralized Identity (e.g., Civic, uPort): Decentralized identity solutions leverage blockchain technology to enable secure, direct, and verifiable digital identity. Sites like Civic and uPort allow users to register their own identity on a blockchain, then authenticate that identity wherever they need to online, with no third-party involvement. These solutions help to ensure that sensitive digital interactions are more secure, private, and efficient.
These sites represent only a small sampling of the diverse and rapidly expanding landscape of Web 3.0 applications and platforms. Despite being in its infancy, we can expect to see a whole host of innovative new projects and applications emerge as our decentralized technologies continue to mature and gain adoption, forever altering the way we interact with and view the digital world.
Author bio:
Vaibhav Shah, CEO of Techuz, comes with an experience of more than 12+ years in software development and IT services. Since its formation, he has been responsible for the growth of the company. He has established Techuz as one of the best providers of web and mobile solutions which are customized for start-ups, SMES, and Enterprises
*****
