The World Wide Web is a goldmine of information, but there’s a lot we can learn about the web itself too. Here are ten interesting things about the history of the web that everyone should know.
1. Today, more people access the web using mobile devices than computers.
According to a study by Perficient.com using Google Analytics’ Benchmarking Feature, 68.1% of visitors to websites around the globe used mobile devices in 2020. The number is only going up as the amount of mobile users increases. In the previous year, 63.3% of visitors to websites used mobile devices.
2. Who controls the World Wide Web, and what is it made up of?
The web is controlled and managed by The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). W3C is a community of over 350 member organizations. They maintain frameworks and rules related to the web and consult with companies to make sure they abide by the W3C standards for the web.
The World Wide Web is an application built on top of the internet. It is a space for information and resources to be accessed from webpages through a browser connected to the internet.
3. Who is Tim Berners Lee? What is he best known for?
Tim Berners Lee is known for creating the World Wide Web in 1989 while working at CERN laboratories to create an automated service to transfer information between scientists in universities around the globe. Later, Lee created an organization (W3C) to manage the web in its growth to what we see today, used on a daily basis by all sorts of people.
4. What is a blog? What is it used for?
A blog is a website that is regularly updated with new content usually in the form of ‘posts,’ individual pages/sections. Blogs can be for personal use, like a diary or portfolio, or for corporate use or education.
5. What is a “responsive” website design?
Responsive web design responds to the user’s behavior and environment, things like screen size, window size, and even physical orientation. A website designed responsively accommodates for different resolutions.
6. Why are “responsive” website designs necessary?
Responsive website designs are necessary for a smooth viewing experience. If the site is not responsive, it would be frustrating to use. If you shrink a window or use a different device, you may have to zoom and scroll constantly.
7. What is SEO, and why should website owners/managers be concerned with SEO?
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization. As the name suggests, it is the process of optimizing your website to be viewed easier through search engines. A website with good SEO would be easy to find with a search engine.
Website owners and managers should care about SEO, as a lot of traffic comes from search engines.
8. What is dynamic content?
Dynamic content changes and adapts in real-time, based on signals and data from the user, like pages viewed, reading time, and more. Think of how online shops change what items are recommended for you as you browse.
9. What is a content management system?
A content management system, or CMS for short, is a service that allows users to create and manage their own website. They are usually easy to use by those with little to no technical knowledge. An example of a CMS is WordPress, the CMS I am using to manage this blog.
10. What is a youtube channel? Who might want to start one?
A YouTube channel is your YouTube account page. You can post videos and stream content live with it, and create playlists and comment on videos. People who make YouTube channels could be wanting to create videos for fun, advertise their business, educate people, store content privately, or just be able to support other channels.
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