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Networking & Internet

World Wide Web

A linked information system invented by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1989 and opened to the public in 1993.

English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web while at CERN in 1989. He conceived it as a universal linked information system. It opened to the public in 1993.

Web servers make documents available, and programs called browsers fetch them. Each resource has an address called a URL. Pages are written in HTML and move across the Internet using HTTP.

Why it matters

The Web is the most common way people reach the Internet. Its links let a reader jump from one document to another with a single click.

Key facts

  • Invented by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in 1989.
  • Opened to the public in 1993.
  • Uses HTTP, HTML and URLs.
  • Reached through programs called browsers.
  • Runs on top of the Internet.

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, "World Wide Web", en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web, accessed October 14, 2026.
  2. Wikipedia, "Tim Berners-Lee", en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee, background reading, accessed October 14, 2026.