The popularity of the World Wide Web since its public release has been staggering. This popularity would never have been possible without web browsers. The first web browser, written by Tim Burners-Lee, was originally called WorldWideWeb, but was later renamed Nexus to avoid confusion.

In 1995, as the internet grew two browsers emerged. Netscape Navigator was in large use as a free way to access the internet. To combat this popularity and promote its operating system, Microsoft released Internet Explorer. Over the span of a few months, the two companies combated one another to win a majority of the market share. Most of this competition resulted in new features such as browser specific HTML tags and two different versions of JavaScript, rather than bug fixes. In 1996, Internet Explorer introduced the first commercial implementation of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The competitive fight for market share ended in 1998, when Netscape was acquired by AOL.

The advent of user-friendly web browsers led to phenomenon known as Web 1.0. Web 1.0 is a term used to refer to websites created by businesses and individuals that do not involve a social aspect. This period of time in the mid to late 90's was a time of growth and expansion. For the first time in civilization, information from one individual was made available to the entire world, in real-time. Most websites still today can be considered Web 1.0, because often small businesses and individuals do not require any social interaction on their websites.

The internet has contributed to one of the most well known financial bubbles of the last 20 years. The dot com era, as it has come to be known, lasted from 1995 until 2001, when most companies went into bankruptcy, were bought out, or were liquidated. These companies often rejected traditional business models, and rather focused on acquiring vast market share to make profit.

In 1996, Larry Page a student at Stanford University wanted to create a web utility that would allow people to search for information on the web easily by the content and keywords within the document. This “web utility” is better known as Google. In 2000, Google introduced keyword driven advertisements that allowed companies to advertise “by-the-click”. Profits from these advertisements have given Google power known to few companies. In 2006, they bought the popular video sharing site YouTube for $1.65 billion dollars.

Throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s the importance of web standards became more important as file size and computing capability increased. “Web standards” is a term to describe the best practices in web design as well as philosophy of design. Initially however, the term was used to describe the need for a universal standard for markup languages, stylesheet specifications, JavaScript, and DOM elements. Web standards have given rise to many cross browser compatible websites, the popularity of CSS over table layouts, validated code, and proper use of accessibility standards (access for blind or vision impaired, as well as mobile devices).

As high speed internet connection speeds became “mainstream”, internet services such as YouTube have helped companies spread free advertising, promote ideas, and give individuals a resounding voice, in a once “full” internet. YouTube also offers social networking similar to MySpace and Facebook.

The new millennium brought many changes to the world and to the internet. After the collapse of the dot com era, a new "age" of the internet was emerging. It became known as Web 2.0. Web 2.0 has many meanings for many different people. Originally Web 2.0 referred to the web after the dot com era. Today, however, Web 2.0 signifies the incorporation of social interaction on a website or web application. Blogs can be considered Web 2.0 because they allow individuals to post their thoughts and research, and allow others to comment on those thoughts and feelings. Myspace and Facebook, for example, are considered Web 2.0 because they involve and require social interaction.

In 2003, MySpace was founded, and allowed friends and colleagues all over the world to interact with one another’s profile by viewing pictures, video, and personal biographical information. Similarly in 2004, Facebook was founded allowing college students to interact in the same way. Other social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Classmates.com unite friends, family, and colleagues in a way never before perceived.

Social networking of information has also become popular with web services such as de.lic.ous, Diigo, and Digg which allows users to link related material across the internet similar to the way Vannevar Bush imagined information could be linked. These sites help increase popularity and knowledge of topics that were once hidden deep in search engine results.

The vast amount of information available and the progress by which this information has been achieved is overwhelming. In the last decade an explosion of information both educational and social has led to unforeseen advances in other sectors of technology including the medical, engineering, sociology, and computer science. The speed by which ideas are spread will enable society to experience unprecedented growth and change. Ideas can be raised to the paramount of social acceptance in a matter of days or months, or fail to social degradation in even less time. Our political elections are now subject to discussion between people who live in distant cities, states, or countries rather than just friends and family. These advances need to be taken with an open mind.

We need to keep our moral values in check when using such a powerful tool. Looking back, it is astonishing to imagine such technological advances, but we must remember to live like visionaries and imagine the next advance, and be willing to listen to those who believe they’ve found it. What may seem impossible today will be mainstream in the next 100 years.