Eclectia

How the Web Has Changed in 20 Years

The World Wide Web is 20 years old.The World Wide Web was invented about 20 years ago in a laboratory in Europe. Intended to provide a more efficient way for people to "view" documents that were stored across the Internet, the Web was only intended to be a passive interface. How expectations have changed.

The Web was once so esoteric that the U.S. Department of Education maintained a "user-friendly" explanation of what it is and how to use it. Today it has become so ubiquitous that people equate the Web with the Internet, they surf it on their cell phones, and other once separate parts of the Internet (such as news groups) have been almost completely integrated into the Web of connectivity.

There have been changes through the years, to be sure. For example, we no longer place as much value in Web directories. Even though they may be human-vetted, we have grown to trust machine-managed search engine directories much more. There is so much information available now that human-edited directories simply cannot keep up with the growth of the Web.

We don't know what the Internet will look like in 20 years. We can only expect that as technology becomes more powerful, less expensive, and more widely used that our need for connectivity will increase. The increased demand for connectivity will spur new innovations.

The future stands before us. We only have to reach out and embrace it. The next generation of Internet users will learn how to surf the Web and populate it with their own ideas in school and at home. And then we'll all feel like grandmas and grandpas sooner than ever before.

Sounds exciting, doesn't it?


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