By Raza Mehdi
Aug 01, 2022
Sir Tim Berners-Lee is the reason you can navigate the internet so easily. He is one of the living inventors who developed the World Wide Web (WWW), web browser, and the hypertext transfer protocol. Let’s learn more about him on World Wide Web Day.
Image: Wikipedia Media
He was born in London to Mary Lee Woods and Conway Berners-Lee, both renowned computer scientists and mathematicians. They were among the fore bench members who joined hands to develop a computer.
Genius in the Genes
Berners-Lee graduated from Oxford University and became a software engineer at CERN, a European research organization near Geneva, Switzerland. While working there, Sir Tim noticed a big problem.
Image: CERN
From Oxford to Geneva
Back then, information was stored in different computers and you had to log on to different computers to access it. Berners-Lee noticed his coworkers were struggling to share information while working.
Image: GIPHY
A Common Conundrum
Sir Tim saw a way to solve this problem. He created a browser via which information across all connected computers can be shared in the form of pages written in a shared language called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
Hello HTML
In 1989, Sir Tim invented the World Wide Web, which is used by billions of internet users around the world today. Although the invention of the World Wide Web led to the upgrade of sharing information via the internet, the first email was sent before its creation.
The World Wide Web
At first, Sir Tim named the information linking system ENQUIRE, an idea he got from a book by his parents, ‘Enquire within upon everything.’ But after sharing the proposal with his colleagues, they suggested naming the project World Wide Web.
Image: GIPHY
What’s in a Name!
After the development of the World Wide Web, its usage was restricted to Tim Berners-Lee and other CERN researchers. Later on, he proposed they allow its access to the rest of the public.
Going Global
The organisation supported him and in 1993, they allowed public access to the web free of charge. After this, the web was updated along with the browser and the search engines.
Image: GIPHY
Free Access
Unlike several inventors, Tim Berners-Lee did not aim to gain profit from his invention. He always approved the free access of the web browser for the public. It has earned him the title of ‘the unsung hero of the information age.’
A Noble Cause
After the popularity of his invention, Tim Berners-Lee has been endowed with many awards and appreciation. In 2004, Berners-Lee was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for his pioneering work, thereby getting the title of Sir.
Kneel Mr Berners-Lee, Arise Sir Tim!