Throughout the Years: The Evolution of Website Design

From humble beginnings and large aspirations, a new ‘information superhighway’ dubbed the World Wide Web was born. By the end of 1993, there were 623 websites, by mid-1994 there were 2,738 websites, and by the end of that same year, there were more than 10,000 websites. In 1995, the Internet had a user base of fewer than 40 million users. Comparatively, Facebook today is 15 times larger than the entire Internet was back then. Fast-forward to 2000 and 40 million Americans (48% of US Internet users) had purchased a product online. Today, there are a staggering 1.74 billion websites on the World Wide Web.

Accelerating its growth were a number of factors. Firstly, programming languages and technologies such as JavaScript, HTML and multimedia progressed throughout the years resulting in more sophisticated website design and development. Furthermore, the invention of broadband Internet which surpassed dial-up Internet provided users with much faster and more efficient access to the Internet. But over-and-above this, there is the innate need for humankind to learn, create and connect with others. The World Wide Web revolutionised this. Here, we explore the evolution of website design…

Inventor(s) of the Internet

Although it is not possible to credit the invention of the Internet to one…