Learning about a brief history of Internet sites reveals that the Internet actually started small. While the Internet today hosts hundreds of millions of sites, it began as a humble medium hosting only a few. As more people began to rely on the Internet for gathering information, the number of sites grew exponentially in terms of numbers and technological sophistication.
Packet-Switching Networks, ARPANET and the Birth of the Internet
Before Internet sites were possible, the Internet itself had to exist, and Internet history began as part of a government project. Starting in the 1960s, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) developed ARPANET under the instructions of the United States Defense Department, which wanted to improve communication in the event of a national emergency. The rudimentary technology involved enormous computers using packet-switching networks engaged in digital interaction. ARPANET also hosted the first e-mail system and helped lay the foundation for sharing information over a network.
USENET
In the late 1970s, the true spirit of free information exchange via Internet was developed by USENET, a medium for newsgroups and discussions between distant parties. USENET inadvertently laid the groundwork for modern Internet sites enabling communication among hundreds of users, employing the same computer-to-computer technology that would ultimately allow Web sites to flourish.
The World Wide Web
As personal computers became exceedingly popular towards the end of the 1980s, it was necessary to develop a common system for sharing information, and Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in the early 1990s. In 1993, Mosaic a primitive Web site that served as the prototype for later behemoths such as Google and Yahoo, became the first search engine that caught fire with the public. By 1995, America Online and similar companies were offering Internet access, and the first corporate Web sites were appearing. With the technology for Web site development in place, browsers such as Netscape and Microsoft were battling for supremacy.
Internet Sites Today
Today, the Internet is comprised of hundreds of millions of Web sites, many of them indexed by search engines so users can find information. Every day a glut of new content is uploaded, downloaded and traded. Wireless Internet services and low hosting costs have combined to make Internet sites even easier to build. While the speedy, elegant Internet sites of today may seem far removed from the clunky, primitive sites of the past, they are rooted in identical technology.
 | Who invented the Internet? While many people were part of the process, much of the credit goes to a few notable institutions and individuals. |
 | The history of Internet security shows that programmers have managed to keep out most data thieves and troublemakers, yet they are constantly fighting to close up gaps that these hackers can exploit. |
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