Ever wondered what the first website on the internet looked like?
Well, let me show you.

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It’s plain, text-heavy, and, let’s be honest, a little underwhelming by today’s standards.

Now, compare that to the visually stunning, interactive websites we see today.

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The evolution of the internet is truly mind-blowing.

As of 2024, there are 1.1 billion websites on the internet. Out of these, only about 200 million are actively maintained. The rest? They’ve been abandoned, left to float in the digital abyss.

And approximately 252,000 websites are created every single day. That’s about 10,500 websites every hour. By the time you finish reading this post, hundreds of new websites will have popped up somewhere on the internet.

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The Beginning: The First Website

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Let’s rewind to 1991.
The first-ever website was developed by Tim Berners-Lee, the genius behind the World Wide Web. This was also the same year HTML—the backbone of websites—was introduced, making it possible to create and structure web pages.

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By 1996, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) entered the scene, giving websites a visual makeover. It took websites from looking like ransom notes to something a little more visually appealing. The internet was starting to get its groove, but websites were still pretty basic—think of your grandma’s old photo album but online.

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The JavaScript Revolution

Enter JavaScript, the game-changer.
JavaScript made websites interactive. Suddenly, you could do more than just read static content. You could fill out forms, play simple games, and see real-time updates. Websites became more engaging, and the internet felt alive for the first time.

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The Era of Flash and Mobile-Friendly Design

In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Flash arrived, bringing animation, audio, and video to websites. It allowed creators to make highly interactive content and even short films. Flash was groundbreaking—until it wasn’t. It faded out due to security concerns, heavy file sizes, and incompatibility with mobile devices.

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Speaking of mobile, as smartphones became huge, websites had to adapt. This shift brought about responsive web design, a concept that made websites look great on any device. Around 2010-2012, responsive design became the standard for modern web development.

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The Rise of WordPress and CMS Platforms

Let’s not forget WordPress, which started as a simple blogging platform in 2003. By 2009, it evolved into a powerful content management system (CMS). WordPress made it possible for anyone to create a website without knowing how to code. Fast forward to today, and nearly half of the internet’s websites are powered by WordPress.

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The Web App Boom and Social Media Takeover

By the mid-2000s, web applications became a thing. Unlike static websites, web apps were interactive and allowed for complex functionality. This laid the foundation for social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, which took over in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

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Suddenly, the internet wasn’t just a place to visit—it became a place to live. Social media brought people together in ways we never imagined. Of course, where there’s community, there’s conflict. Social media today is both a warzone and a beautiful garden—it all depends on where you choose to hang out.

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Today and Beyond

Fast forward to today, and we’re witnessing incredible innovations like no-code tools, web3, blockchain technology, and artificial intelligence. The internet is growing faster than ever, constantly evolving, and shaping the way we live.

And this is just the beginning. There’s so much more to explore, but that’s a story for another day.