GREENSBORO, N.C. — www. You see it all the time, it doesn't even catch your attention. Remember when we used to have to say it every time we gave an internet address? Now, it's an assumed part of an address.
How did we even get the words: World Wide Web? The answer is Tim Berners-Lee. On this day August 6th, 1991 he launched his first website on the World Wide Web from this MIT office.
Starting in 1989, he began working on ways digital objects could be identified and retrieved through browser software capable of rendering graphics and other images.
On August 6, 1991, he launched the world's first website, http://info.cern.ch , it was dedicated to information on his World Wide project. Get this, Berners-Lee decided against patenting his technology and instead offered it as royalty-free software.
In an interview with The Associated Press in 2019, Berners-Lee released what he called a rule book for online conduct-- to combat misinformation, mass surveillance, and government censorship.
“There's a sense that some of these questions were really hard," said Berners-Lee. "This new world in which so much of our society is actually determined by how social networks work and so on is new. And there's no rule book written a hundred years ago."
By the way, there is an estimated 1.8 billion websites in existence now.
THE WEB & YOUR INFORMATION
- Guard your personal information. Identity thieves can use your Social Security number to take out loans, open credit cards or even collect your tax refund. Remember, email is vulnerable to hackers, so avoid emailing your Social Security number or other confidential information to a tax preparer or accountant. If you’re using a website to file your taxes, make sure your information is secure by looking for the lock icon on the address bar.