History of the Internet

The origins of the Internet takes us back to the early 60’s when a group of visionaries discovered the potential of sharing information in a network with the use of computers.

In its early stages, what today we know as the internet was named ARPANET, after the Advanced Research Projects Agency, and was only utilized for research and development in scientific and military fields.

The main goal of this system was to provide a stable communication network that would work even if some of the sites were destroyed in case of a nuclear attack. Unlike the current browsing, the internet back in the early stages could only be used by computer experts and highly qualified professionals such as engineers, scientists and librarians.

The first version of an email was introduced in 1972.

As the years went past, more and more universities adopted the internet as a way to index their libraries inventory or to share resources with colleagues on campus. While there was a small number of sites online it was simple to keep track of the resources available, but it wasn’t until 1989 that the first prototype of a Search engine was introduced under the name of ‘Archie’.

This software would explore all the known ftp sites and would create a searchable index for people to find what they were after.

Since the Internet was funded by the government, its use was limited only to educational and military purposes and it was forbidden for any type of commercial activity. Obviously this rule had to come to an end as more and more independent commercial networks began to expand rapidly.

A determining moment in the short life of the internet was in 1991 when the first user friendly interface was introduced. It consisted of a simple menu system that helped people organize files in a simple manner.

7 years later, the release of Windows 98 with Internet Explorer was a key factor in the rapid expansion that the internet went through during the last decade.

For the last few years, the growth of high speed internet connections have allowed us to publish not only text and images but all sorts of multimedia files that have made the whole experience a lot more engaging and rich.

What the near future has prepared for us is the possibility of being connected anywhere in the world, whether its in a “hot spot” or through our mobile devices. One thing is for sure… no one knows how far the internet will go and when it will develop to its full potential.