7 internet facts almost nobody knows
We use the internet every day, yet its history is full of details that surprise even those of us who work with it. Here are seven facts about the web that almost nobody knows, and what they teach us about building good websites today.
1. The very first website is still online
The first website was published by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, in 1991. It explained what the World Wide Web project was and how to use it. In 2013 CERN restored it, and today you can still visit it at info.cern.ch, looking exactly as it did: text, blue links and nothing else.
The lesson still holds: a useful website starts with clear, well-linked content. Design should help people understand it, never hide it.
2. The first .com dates from 1985
On 15 March 1985, symbolics.com became the first .com domain ever registered. It belonged to a computer manufacturer. For years, registering a domain was almost exclusive to tech companies and universities; today there are hundreds of millions.
3. The first photo on the web showed a band
In 1992 an image of Les Horribles Cernettes, a parody band made up of CERN staff, was published on the web. It is considered one of the first photographs on the web, back when pages were almost entirely text.
4. The web’s inventor regrets the double slash
Have you noticed the two slashes in https://? Tim Berners-Lee has admitted they were unnecessary and that, if he started again, he would drop them. As he put it, they would have saved a lot of paper, ink and typing around the world.
5. Error 404 did not come from a room at CERN
There is a popular legend that “404 Not Found” is named after room 404 at CERN, where the servers supposedly lived. It is a myth: the number comes from the HTTP protocol itself, which groups errors caused by the user’s request under codes starting with 4. A 404 simply means “this page does not exist”.
By the way, a good 404 page is an opportunity: instead of a dead end, it should help visitors find what they were looking for.
6. Spain’s .es domain was born in 1988
Spain’s country domain, .es, was created in 1988. For many years it was very hard to get one, because you had to prove you owned a trademark or trade name. Since it was opened up in 2005, any person or company with ties to Spain can register it.
7. The web was given to the world for free
On 30 April 1993 CERN put the web software into the public domain: anyone could use it without paying for a licence. That decision explains much of its success. Had the web been a paid product, we would probably be browsing something very different today.
What these facts teach us
More than thirty years later, the foundations are the same: clear content, well-planned links, open standards and pages that work for everyone. It is what we apply to every website we build, with today’s technology.
Want a website worthy of that history? Tell us about your project.