The internet has dramatically transformed how we access and manage information, both at home and in the business world. For many people, it’s almost impossible to go about your day without needing access to the internet. It’s in your home—from smart doorbells to TVs, thermostats, and personal assistants. It’s on your wrist, in your car, and, of course, on your phone. It’s big business and it is integral to just about every business out there.
Established businesses have taken advantage of the ability to reach new customers by selling their products online, while would-be entrepreneurs use the internet to open online storefronts. The internet also enables us to conduct both personal and professional transactions more efficiently—from accessing important health-care documents to filing our tax returns, transferring money between bank accounts, and making payments to individuals online. Many of us practically run our lives through our phones.
The Internet: From Inception to Today
The internet as we know it today originated in the 1960s with the idea of using a traditional telephone switching circuit to wirelessly connect computers in a network. The telephone system would allow these computers to communicate with one another, exchange data, and run shared programs. Researchers and engineers from both the public and the private sector came together to form the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to investigate ways the U.S. military could improve communications, with the goal of protecting the country from unexpected enemy attacks.
In 1993, the first user-friendly web browser, Mosaic, came on the scene. A web browser provides the interface that you can use to search for the information stored on the WWW. Marc Andreessen, a student at the University of Illinois, developed it. One key feature of Mosaic was the ability to include images as well as text on a web page. Other features included buttons to select for navigating the page, the ability to include video clips, and hyperlinks. A hyperlink is a link that can take the user from one web page to another just by clicking the highlighted link. Initially available as a free download, Mosaic quickly caught on and evolved as more users came on board. Prior to Mosaic, fewer than 200 web pages were available, but in just a few short years by the late 1990s, that number grew to more than 100,000. After graduating, Andreessen formed Netscape Communications and would eventually launch Netscape Navigator, which would grow to over 10 million users globally in just two years. Microsoft was quick to respond with its browser, Internet Explorer, which was bundled with the Windows operating system.
HTML is used to create web pages. The information is contained behind the scenes and is used to format text and the layout of the page. Read this article about HTML and the process used to learn more. Watch this video on how HTML is used to build websites to learn more.
You can view the transcript for “HTML Crash Course For Absolute Beginners” here (opens in new window).
By 1998, some big tech names established themselves as internet-based businesses—Hotmail, Amazon, Google, eBay, and Yahoo!, to name a few. The rise of the internet led to what became known as the dot-com bubble, a period when investors poured money into many internet-based ventures that promised high returns. Of course, many of these ventures failed, and their investors lost a good deal of capital. But, despite this, new ideas continued to emerge, and the internet continued to grow. Here are a few internet ventures that came out of the dot-com bubble and are still around today:
- Wikipedia—2001
- Facebook—2004
- YouTube—2005
- Twitter (now X)—2006
- Hulu—2007
Inequities in Internet Access
Having access to the internet is almost essential to fully participate in society today. In some instances, without the internet, even routine tasks can seem impossible. For example, some companies can be contacted only via the internet, so you may need internet access to even apply for a job. Because of the global nature of the internet, it might be assumed that everyone has access in some way. But even in the United States, there are large disparities in access to reliable internet connections. In today’s electronic world, this is furthering the gap between economic, racial, and ethnic groups; age groups; and socioeconomic groups. It is estimated that on average, nearly 15 percent of households in the United States with school-age children lack access to the internet. But in rural or low-income areas, this percentage could be much higher.
Governments are introducing initiatives to make the internet more accessible to all, often through partnerships with technology firms. For example, in a partnership with Google, the city of Austin, Texas, has been able to provide free internet services for nearly 2,000 lower-income residents. As early as 2006, India established internet access in its rural communities through the use of kiosks. These are just a couple of examples of the efforts worldwide to make the internet more accessible for all.