The Website Turns 20

Saturday marked the 20th anniversary of the first website (August 6, 1991) and we at Cite are always up for a celebration. This anniversary, however, is more than just an excuse for cake and ice cream, it’s a celebration of how far we’ve come in digital media and how important websites have become in our daily lives.

first website online

The first website was created by Tim Berners-Lee, a contractor at CERN laboratory. It was completely text-based and explained what the World Wide Web was all about and how to use it.  And since the World Wide Web relies on a network of websites, its not surprising that the first site contained instructions on how to create a website.  Who could predict how popular that would become!

The website was hosted by CERN, and its address was http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html.  There is no screenshot of the site as it was originally created, however the above image was taken the following year and gives us a good idea of how the website must have looked.  The site was updated regularly as the World Wide Web Project developed.

From images and movies, to interactive functionality, search engine optimisation, and advanced back-end systems, a lot has changed since the first website’s launch, and we’ve been lucky enough to take part in the evolution.  So Happy Birthday to “the website”, we can’t wait to see what the next 20 years will bring.

For more information on our website design and development services, give us a call at 0116 254 9888.

*website image from CERN