The History of the Web

In the early 2000s, Web 2.0 prompted new web standards, HTML5 and CSS3. Developers used ‘shims’ and ‘polyfills’ for browser compatibility, fostering innovation.

The indie web may be back. But if is, it is likely in a way we least expect.

The internet’s openness, championed by pioneers like Tim Berners-Lee, as well as concerns over its limitations, are explored in a retrospective on the history and future of the open web. The duality of its freedom – a gift and a constraint – points to the need for a more inclusive and diverse online landscape.

In my work on the History of the Web, that’s a view that I’ve often taken. But when we look back the web (sometimes fondly tinted with nostalgia) we must be careful to couch that perspective in the bias of its early history.

When the Allaire brothers were looking for a way to build websites, nothing stuck out. So they built their own and called it Coldfusion.

I just learned that Molly Holzschlag has passed. She was a tireless advocate for the principles of the open web. […]

The Crash When the pieces began to fall in the early months of 2000, it happened quick. “It was the […]

As the dot-com hype began to rise, entrepreneurs and ordinary investors got swept up in the fervor.

The Flatiron building is one of the most instantly recognizable buildings in New York City. Built at the beginning of […]

Chapter 11: Dot-Com is live! Part 1 at least. I’m going to be sending out this chapter over the next couple […]

The history of JSON is the history of the people that created it, and what they set out to do with the software they wrote.

On the early web, some content pioneers experimented with interactive, community-fed, literate smut.

News used to be behind a paywall, or not. But then a publication figured out how to do both.