CSIS-390 Some Web History

1. CSIS-390Some Web History Dr. Eric Breimer

2. Syllabus • Google “Eric Breimer” • Click on first link • Click on CSIS-390 • Click on Syllabus

3. History • Before designing and developing web pages and web applications it is important to know how it all came about… • Internet • World Wide Web (WWW)

4. Are these things the same? • Internet • World Wide Web

5. ARPAnet • ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency • 1968, Cold War, Military Applications

6. ARPAnet • Originally, Custom/Tailor-made network applications for sharing data and messages 1968-1973 • 1971 Email concept developed • Person can have an identifier ebreimer@network_name • Virtual mailbox • By 1973 Email was 75% of the ARPAnet traffic • File Transfer Protocol (FTP) was developed in 1973 • General/Generic service concept

7. ARPAnetInternet • Transition Period 1971-1983 • Packet Switching developed and perfected • Instead of point-to-point persistent connections • Robust, fault-tolerant, efficient, survivable • Network of Networks realized on a large scale • The ability to connect different types of networks TCP/IP

8. Early Internet 1983-1989 • No web browsers, no web pages at all… • Only… • Email • FTP (document and image sharing) • Early message board system (BB systems) • Custom data transfer applications • Banking • Early business to business E-commerce

9. In 1989 came the WWW • The concepts existed, but one man implemented the concepts and made them real… • WWW concepts • Hypertext concept – Documents can have links to other documents, just click the text • URL concept – Documents, computers, virtual mailboxes, networks can all have uniform identifier to help locate them

10. Tim Berners-Lee (TBL) • He invented the WWW in the sense that he put together a bunch of “good ideas” and implemented… • The first web browser • The first web server • In the process he proposed and developed • HTML • The URL concept

11. Before the WWW, finding stuff was hard • To find documents or data on the Internet you had to • Know numeric IP addresses to locate FTP servers • Login anonymously or with a user account • Know the folder hierarchy and file name of the document/data. • People would share this information via Email. • The idea of just browsing the Internet was silly, you just couldn’t do it. • If you didn’t have connections, you had no idea what was out there…

12. Understanding the WWW • HTTP instead of FTP • Web Browser instead of FTP client • Web Server instead of FTP server • URLs instead of numeric IP addresses • Clicking Hyperlink instead of navigating through folder hierarchies • Universal/Standard document formatting HTML instead of proprietary documents Word, doc, docx, pdf, etc.

13. Are these things the same? Internet • Nuts and bolts • Hardware • TCP/IP • Packet Switching • Network of Networks concept World Wide Web • Content layer of Internet • Software • HTTP • URLs • Hyperlinks

14. Internet vs. WWW • Terms used interchangably by general public and media • You should know that • The WWW is a framework built “on top of” the Internet. The framework includes protocols for sharing data, standards for formatting data, and conventions for locating data. (The boat) • The Internet is really the “transport layer” of the WWW. (The river)

15. WWW Matures 1989-1995 • 1989 TBL invents first web browser and server • 1991 Al Gore passes Gore Bill, which helps pave the way $$$ for future development • 1993 Mosaic (first good graphical web browser) is born • 1993 The National Science Foundation (NSF) creates the InterNIC, which centralizes the control of URL and domain names • 1995 NSFnet(formally ARPAnet) becomes research only network • Internet traffic starts to get routed through a commercial backbone (operated by AT&T, Sprint, and others)

16. Commercialization Period 1995-2000 • 1995 – Netscape become a household name • Sells web server software…gives away browser for free • Reached almost 90% market share by 1996 • 1995 – 1996 Microsoft scrambles to come out with competing software (Internet Explore, IIS Web Server) • 1996-1999 – Browser Wars between Microsoft and Netscape • HTML is pushed to the limit • Browser plug-ins developed, Flash, RealMedia, etc. • 1997-2000 – E-commerce Commercial Explosion • Amazon, E-bay, Online Stock Trading, MP3 trafficking, etc.

17. Browser Wars 1996-1999 • Microsoft (Internet Explorer) and Netscape compete to be the #1 browser. • In ’96 Netscape dominated • By ‘99 Internet Explorer was #1 • Microsoft Integrated IE into the Windows OS and it was often forced upon people as the default browser • Microsoft paid billions in lawsuit (EU mostly) but still won the war • Netscape makes its source code open, so developers can build upon it. • Leads to the Mozilla Foundation, which eventually develops Firefox. • In 2000, AOL buys out Netscape, which is was failing financially • This marks the end of the war and beginning of Microsoft’s dominance in the WWW.

18. Browser Wars - Significance • Early competition pushed web browsers to the limit. • Browsers use to be simple client applications that could render HTML code. • Now browsers are heavy-weight applications (JavaScript, ActiveX, Flash plug-ins, etc.) • Microsoft’s recent dominance was terrible. • Proprietary, No regard for recognized standards