What was the world’s first web site?

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The World Wide Web was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, while working at CERN, a high-energy physics institute. He came up with the idea of creating a network that would facilitate distribution and retrieval of information, and with his colleague, Robert Cailliau, extended a proposal in March 1989.

With the proposal out of the way (it was finalised a year later), Berners-Lee set about creating the technology, which consisted primarily of a web server and a browser. And to test everything, he created the world’s first web site.

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The World Wide Web is one of the greatest inventions of the modern era. Not only has it made the world smaller through quick and easy dispersal of information (as was the original intention), it has also changed how we live our lives today from communication and voicing our thoughts on social web sites to online shopping. And it all started in a small lab at CERN!

Enjoy these 7 facts about the worlds first web site!

On which date did the site come online?

The exact date on which the world’s first web site was created is lost in time. However, we do know when it was put online – 20th December 1990.
On 6th August 1991, Tim Berners-Lee announced a summary of the WWW project on alt.hypertext newsgroup. This is often and erroneously regarded by some as the date on which the first site became live.

On which computer was the site hosted?

The site was created and resided on one of the two NeXTcube computers Sir Tim Berner-Lee had in his lab at CERN. NeXTcube was manufactured by NeXT Computers, a company Steve Jobs had founded after he quit Apple in 1985.

What was the address?

The address of the first web server was nxoc01.cern.ch and the site ran on the URL http://nxoc01.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. This has been changed to //info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html.
FYI, the Internet and domain names had been in existence for years before the web came about.

How did the WWW work then?

The site was delivered via the CERN httpd server Berners-Lee had developed and, in its early days, could be viewed ONLY on NeXT computers. That’s because the world’s first web browser (WorldWideWeb) could run only on NeXTSTEP, the operating system of those computers.

What was the first web site about?

The first site wasn’t anything fancy and simply described the World Wide Web project. The original contents of the site are lost because it underwent frequent changes. The least recently modified web page is at https://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/Link.html. It carries the time stamp of Tue, 13 Nov 1990 15:17:00 GMT.
Also, the first version of the site did not have any images!

Is the first web site still running?

Yes! The site is online and can be viewed here. Surprisingly, the site was taken down in 1993. But because of its historical significance, decades later, CERN initiated a project to put it up again.

Did you follow the link above and had a look at the world’s first web site? Let us know what you think of it.

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