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This means we can trace the origin of the browser to the early days of the internet, which many people do not know takes us all the way back to the 1950s.Īt this point, the internet was a defense project with the primary objective of creating a communications network that would allow people to communicate without using phone lines. While the web browser as we know it today didn't come onto the scene until around 1990, it had been in the making for several decades, albeit indirectly, as part of the overall effort to develop the internet. This makes it interesting and important to study web browsers' history, the computer programs that serve as the building blocks for our modern age. Today, the browser remains every bit as relevant in fact, many people have come to associate the internet and their web browser as the same thing (which they're not). This is because it was the web browser that helped take the internet out of the academic world and into the mainstream, and once people got a taste of its power, they couldn't stop, leading to a full-on revolution. How this transformation started and how it is playing out today is a fascinating story that helps us piece together the world we live in.Įmbedded in the story of how the internet changed our lives forever is the history of the web browser. Now, we often struggle to comprehend life without them.
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To grasp this, consider that just one hundred years ago, essential parts of our daily lives – smartphones, computers, the internet – were beyond even the most creative imagination. Like these other technologies, it has ushered in societal change, but unlike them, this change has been almost instant, and it has had a profound impact on nearly every aspect of our lives. It would not be absurd to say that of all inventions ever created by humankind – the wheel, the steam engine, the light bulb, and so on – the most significant is the internet.
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