Imagine a world where looking up a fact meant digging through a physical library card catalog. Hard to picture now, right? In the snowy backdrop of Geneva, Switzerland, specifically at CERN, a quiet revolution began in 1990 that would delete that world forever.
The Digital Architect: Tim Berners-Lee
I’ve walked the halls of many institutions across Europe, but few have the heavy historical weight of CERN. While most people think of it for particle physics and smashing atoms, it’s actually the birthplace of the way you are reading this text right now. Back in the late 80s, information at CERN was a mess. It was stored on different computers that couldn’t talk to each other. It was like having a library where every book is written in a language only one person understands.
Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist, saw this chaos and wanted to fix it. He didn’t just want to organize files; he wanted a web of information.
The Tool That Started It All: WorldWideWeb
By Christmas of 1990, Tim had finished writing the code for the very first web browser. He called it WorldWideWeb (later renamed Nexus to avoid confusion with the actual web). It wasn’t just a window to look at things; it was also an editor. You could browse and create pages in the same interface. Today’s browsers are mostly “look but don’t touch,” but the original vision was much more interactive.
“Vague but exciting.”
— Mike Sendall (Tim’s boss) regarding the initial proposal.
Why The NeXT Computer Mattered
Tim built this browser on a NeXT computer. This machine, created by Steve Jobs during his time away from Apple, was incredibly advanced for its time. It had great graphics and interface tools that allowed Tim to build the browser relatively quickly. If he had been using a standard PC of that era, it might have taken years longer. Sometimes, the right hardware lands in the right hands at the perfect moment.
| Feature | 1990 WorldWideWeb Browser | Modern Browsers (Chrome/Safari) |
|---|---|---|
| Display | Text & Simple Graphics (Grayscale) | 4K Video, 3D, High-Res Images |
| Function | Browser + Editor | Mostly consumption (Read-only) |
| Navigation | Double-click to follow links | Single click to follow links |
| Network | Local CERN network mostly | Global Internet |
Under the Hood: HTML, HTTP, and URL
To make the browser work, Tim couldn’t just build the car; he had to build the road and the traffic signs too. In 1990, he developed three fundamental technologies that still run the web today:
- HTML: The formatting language for the web.
- URI (now URL): A kind of “address” that is unique and used to locate to each resource on the web.
- HTTP: Allows for the retrieval of linked resources from across the web.
It’s fascinating to think that these acronyms, which we take for granted now, didn’t exist before 1990. They were dreamt up in an office in Switzerland to help physicists share data better.
A Quiet Launch
There was no big press conference. No fireworks. The first website went live, and the first browser accessed it. It explained what the World Wide Web was. The browser was only available to people who had NeXT computers, which limits the audience significantly. It took a while before other browsers came along to open the web to Windows and Mac users.
Looking back from where we stand today, it is wild to think about how fragile this moment was. If CERN had decided to patent this technology and charge royalties for it, the internet as we know it might never have exploded in popularity. Instead, they released it into the public domain.
Why 1990 Was the Turning Point
Before 1990, the internet existed, but it was a dark room. You had to know exactly where the furniture was to avoid stubbing your toe. Tim Berners-Lee turned on the light.
By creating a visual interface where you could simply click to travel from one document to another, he lowered the barrier to entry. You didn’t need to be a computer scientist to find information anymore. While the modern web is full of streaming video, social media, and complex apps, the core DNA remains the same as that first build in December 1990. It is all about connecting one idea to another.
In 1990, the web had no windows, no tabs, no search boxes—just a bold idea at CERN. Tim Berners-Lee built the first web browser, named WorldWideWeb (later Nexus), on a NeXT computer. That tool did something quietly radical: it let people browse and edit the same pages. A read–write web—simple words, huge shift.
Origins At CERN, 1990
Working at CERN in Switzerland, Berners-Lee designed HTTP, HTML, and the idea of URLs to knit documents together. The first browser was coded in Objective‑C on NeXTSTEP and could display text, links, and basic formatting. It also acted as a page editor, so you could click a link, then switch to edit and update the same page—tranform knowledge in place.
Quick Facts
- First Browser: WorldWideWeb (Nexus), 1990
- First Server: info.cern.ch
- Core Pieces: HTTP, HTML, URL
Early Web Timeline (1990–1993)
| Year | Milestone | Why It Mattered |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | First browser and server at CERN | Web begins as read–write hypertext |
| 1991 | Public announcement on the internet | Project reaches global users |
| 1993 | CERN opens web technology to all | Free adoption accelerates growth |
What Made The First Browser Different
- Editing built in: Creators could update pages live, not just read them.
- Hypertext links: Simple anchors connected documents like threads in a web.
- Platform focus: Built for NeXT, then ideas spread to other systems.
From Prototype To Public Access
By 1991, technical notes and code reached early adopters. The server at info.cern.ch hosted docs on how to build a server, write HTML, and link pages. This openness let universities and hobbyists try, iterate, share—and momentum followed.
Why It Still Matters
That early design favored simplicity, links, and open protocols. The result? A network where anyone can publish, connect, and learn. Today’s browsers, from mobile to desktop, still speak HTTP and render HTML—the same core idea, just at planet scale.
Picture it like a simple library that suddenly learned to link every book to every other book, and let readers annotate the margins. That’s what the first browser unlocked: shared knowledge, moving fast through open doors.
