Birth of the Internet Part Two

From military secrets to memes, from war rooms to WhatsApp, the internet’s story didn’t end when ARPANET connected computers. In truth, it hadn’t even begun.

The 1980s: A Digital Tower of Babel

By the early 1980s, computer networks were everywhere and speaking in different languages. Universities had their own systems, governments had theirs, big corporations built isolated networks for their offices and factories. None of them could truly "talk" to each other without complex, costly bridges of technology. Imagine trying to make a phone call where the phone, the line, and even the concept of numbers changed with every city you entered. That’s how digital communication felt, a maze of walls with no shared roads.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s ARPANET had given birth to this patchwork, but even ARPANET wasn’t designed for the everyday person. It was still a tool for researchers, scientists, and governments. Ordinary people didn’t “go online.” There was no “online” yet, just islands of computers blinking in isolation.

But beyond these islands, a storm of change was gathering.

The Man Who Wanted to Organize Information: Tim Berners-Lee

In the late 1980s, at a particle physics lab in Switzerland - CERN, a young British scientist grew increasingly frustrated. Tim Berners-Lee wasn’t trying to invent the internet, he was simply trying to keep track of information. CERN housed thousands of researchers from across the globe and each had their own computer systems, databases, and archives. Sharing information between them was a nightmare. Emails got lost, files often got corrupted and projects duplicated randomly. Berners-Lee saw the problem clearly: no one needed more computers, they needed connections. Not hardware but structure. Not more code but communication.

He envisioned something radical:

• A universal language all computers could understand.
• A way to “link” information through documents.
• A system so simple it could spread beyond science to offices, homes, even schools.

In 1989, he wrote a proposal. His boss scribbled a note at the top: “Vague, but exciting.”

1991: The Birth of the Web

Berners-Lee created three simple inventions that would change the world:

• HTML (HyperText Markup Language): A way to write web pages.
• HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol): A way for computers to share those pages.
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator): A system to find those pages.

He called it the World Wide Web. The first website? info.cern.ch. It was launched publicly in August 1991. It explained the World Wide Web project, how to access it, how to create web pages and browse them.  It wasn’t flashy, there were no pictures, no ads, no cat memes. Just links, text and good old potential.

But as we all know, potential can move mountains.

The 1990s: A Floodgate Opens

What began in academic halls soon escaped into the wild. By the mid-1990s, web browsers like Mosaic made surfing the internet visual and addictive. Suddenly, anyone with a computer could explore vast, virtual landscapes of knowledge, entertainment, and community.

Fun Fact: The first image ever posted online? A promotional photo for a parody pop band at CERN called “Les Horribles Cernettes”. Even physics has a sense of humor.

The internet exploded.

• In 1993, there were 130 websites.
• In 1994, 2,738.
• By 1997? Over 1 million.
• And today, there are over 1.13 billion websites worldwide.

From Emails to E-Commerce:

Amazon sold its first book, eBay auctioned its first broken laser pointer, Yahoo cataloged the chaos, AOL sent millions of free trial CDs into homes, turning dial-up tones into the soundtrack of a generation.

Then came Google, not the first search engine but by far the most revolutionary. Founded in 1998, Google transformed how we searched for knowledge and eventually, how we saw the world. "To Google" became a verb faster than anyone predicted. Facebook followed, what started as a dorm room social experiment in 2004 quickly became a digital town square, changing not just how we connected, but how we presented our lives to others.

With smartphones came a new wave:

• Twitter (2006) — A platform for thoughts in 140 characters or less, now named X after Elon Musk bought it on October 27, 2022.
• WhatsApp (2009) — Simple, encrypted messaging that transcended borders.
• Snapchat (2011) — Ephemeral photos, playful filters, and the birth of Snap stories & the infamous Snap scores.
• Instagram (2010) — A gallery for life’s highlights, where aesthetics became currency.
• TikTok (2016) — A surge of short-form creativity that redefined entertainment for an entire generation. It currently has the Gen-Zs and Gen-Xs on chokehold :).

Each platform shifted not just communication but culture, shaping how we consume news, interact with brands, and even define fame itself. The World Wide Web had grown from a curiosity into the backbone of modern civilization. What began as scattered academic documents had evolved into global empires commanding billions of users, reshaping economies, politics, and the very way we understand truth.

The Web isn't just a tool any longer, it has morphed into a Culture. People now build blogs, write fanfiction, create digital diaries called “homepages”. Forums buzz with debates, chat rooms buzz with flirtation and Geocities give birth to online neighborhoods garish, clunky, and utterly beloved. The World Wide Web had connected the world in a way telegraphs, phones, and even television never could.

Borders have been blurred, voices amplified, ideas now spread like wildfire and sometimes, like an epidemic mania.

The Ripple Effects: A New Civilization Emerges

The internet didn’t just connect people, it reshaped them.

• Education democratized, universities opened free courses.
• Economies transformed, companies rose and fell overnight.
• Communication reinvented, an email could cross oceans faster than a thought.

Governments scramble to catch up, laws lag behind technology and censorship has become a new battlefield. Hackers became both villains and heroes. The Web became both a mirror and a hammer: Reflecting humanity’s dreams, flaws, and brilliance while also forging new realities.

Fun Fact: The phrase “surfing the internet” was coined by librarian Jean Armour Polly in 1992, inspired by a mousepad with a surfer on it.

Legacy: Tim Berners-Lee gave the web away for free. No patents, no fees and no restrictions. He believed information should be free, open, and shared. Today, billions owe him their livelihoods, friendships, romances and even revolutions. What a legend!.

Next Time: Birth of the Internet Final Part | From Dotcom to Data Lords

How the age of social media, surveillance, and billion-dollar tech empires turned the web from wild frontier to corporate kingdom.