Looking Back: 30 Years of the World Wide Web

Today marks the thirtieth anniversary of the birth of the World Wide Web. 30 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee submitted his proposal titled “Information Management” to CERN, a European physics lab.

The proposal asks the reader how scientists would manage increasingly large projects in the future. The proposal outlines the answer to that question. Which is what, in just a couple of years, would become what we know as the World Wide Web: a connected system for sharing information that would lead us into a communication revolution.

Thirty years ago, computer network systems had already been running and growing for years. Emails, message boards, shared files, and emoticons were not a strange concept to many, but the internet as it is today didn’t begin to take shape until the World Wide Web was introduced.

Open source code made it possible for anyone to create websites or browsers, and these web pages, browsers, and hyperlinks made the information available easy to find and easy to navigate.

The internet has reshaped itself in the last 30 years, but there are some really great memories of the World Wide Web of the past that we still are amused at, influenced by and have learned from.

This is just a short list of some of the influential sites and tech that has put us where we are today.

LiveJournal

One of the first variances of a social network was LiveJournal, a blog site where users could debate in comments as well as post original content, from writing pieces like fiction and poetry to visual art. LiveJournal still exists but is now owned by a Russian media company, with most of its original users scattering to Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and other social platforms.

Flickr

Photo sharing site Flickr was one of the web’s first forays into photo sharing since platforms like Friendster and MySpace were not photo-focused. The simple online gallery was a great platform for both pros and amateurs without the noise of other platforms that was the typical fare for sites in the early 2000s.

Amazon

Originally an online bookstore, Amazon was not always the giant retail/tech/entertainment conglomerate that it is today. Though it did take down some major bookstore chains early on, it was hard to predict that Amazon would become the phenomenon it is today.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets or CSS made it easy to learn how to create usable and attractive webpages, separating HTML from how a page looks. CSS also allows you to inspect a site’s code, and with that function, you’re able to change just about anything with a small edit to the code.

Yahoo

Yahoo is one of the longest surviving search engines, and even with a dwindling influence, to this day remains a top visited website. Search engines really built the web, and Yahoo was a major player, bringing users news, sports, market reports, and email all in the same space.

eBay

eBay lingers in the strange space between a free-for-all like Craigslist and the more organized Amazon storefront. eBay is the go-to place for buying just about anything you could want (most of the time used) online, and the mass of items in the site’s catalog is still as obscure, useful to just about anyone, but also just as downright weird as it was at its inception.

Internet Archive

Internet Archive is exactly what it sounds like, an archive of the internet itself. Take a trip back in time to see just what the web looked like in years past. In Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine you can check out the 349 billion web pages that the archive has stored, and reminisce about internet days-gone-by.

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Useful Insights about How People View Websites and Mobile

Do you know what the first thing a user is drawn to on any given website? How about what the first thing a user will click on or skip over? Who doesn’t love a good eye-tracking study? With the ability to take a lot of guesswork out of conversion rate optimization, eye-tracking software and heat maps reveal startling insights into increasing conversions (and avoiding sales killers) that can benefit every business.

It may surprise you, but most people read websites and web content in a very specific pattern. Understanding this pattern may help you easily improve the usability and popularity of your website.

So, let’s go over 15 important eye-tracking studies that will give you a sneak peek into common browsing patterns and elements of human behavior that all marketers need to know.

Let’s take a look!

1. Text attracts more attention than pictures.

2. People start viewing your website from the top left corner.

3. Readers ignore banners.

4. Fancy fonts are ignored.

5. People only scan the lower parts of your website.

6. Short paragraphs work better than long ones.

7. Ads, that are placed on the top or left part of your website, get the most views.

8. Ads, that are placed inside or below an awesome piece of content, get more views.

9. Big pictures attract more attention than small ones.

10. Also headlines draw attention.

11. Visitors spend more time looking at menus and buttons than other parts of your website.

12. Lists are better at keeping your reader focused than large paragraphs.

13. Some people even completely ignore large chunks of text.

14. White space is good!

15. Menu works best when placed in the top part of your website. 

5 Facts on How People View Mobile Web:

1. The reader’s attention is focused more on the top left corner of a screen.

2. Keep your content short & simple. Reading long paragraphs needs concentration, which is something that mobile users don’t have.

3. Users pay most attention on the top 2/3 of the screen.

4. Mobile phone users absorb visuals more than text or content. (But if an image doesn’t supplement your content, you can do away with it).

5. Short, but hard-hitting headlines draw more attention. Make your headlines count.

Read more about how to make user-friendly mobile website here.

There you go. Some points from this list are pretty basic and elementary (perhaps obvious), but a good reminder never hurts. So the next time when you’re writing an awesome piece of content, or building your new website, keep these points in mind.

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