The first stage of the World Wide Web. It was basically a read-only service.
Early webpages were designed by developers to provide information. They were joined together by hyperlinks. Users were mostly consumers of content.
Commerce or business were most absent. Personal webpages were common, located on ISP-run web servers, or free web hosting services. Content creators were rate as most was done offline and uploaded by the developers.
The rough period for Web 1.0 was 1991-2004.
History
Web 1.0 had its origins with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and became a global network representing the future of digital communications. It describes the first “iteration” of what became a growing, evolving medium that eventually expanded into a platform with profound multi-functional uses.
The original design was for military and academic use. Both sought the distribution of information although for different purposes.
Military operations viewed it as a way to get the orders and objectives throughout the world. Academia originally used it to share and review papers.
Characteristics of Web 1.0
Static pages: Pages didn’t offer interactive features that changed based on visitor engagement. At that point websites were largely informational.
Website content stored in files: modern website makes use of a database to store the majority of website content. During Web 1.0 this was not the case and most website content was stored directly in the website files, as opposed to a separate database.
Combination of content and layout: Good web design practice today dictates the separation of webpage markup and styling. Virtually every modern website makes use of external style sheets to determine the look and layout of webpages. During Web 1.0 most styling was built into the page markup itself, often by misusing HTML elements such as tables.
Proprietary HTML tags: During Web 1.0 browsers attempted to stand out by offering support for proprietary tags, creating significant incompatibility problems between websites that used these tags and site visitors using unsupported browsers.
Guestbooks: Website visitor comments were usually added to a Guestbook page rather than attached directly to content pages.
E-mailing of forms: Web hosting servers during the Web 1.0 phase rarely offered support for server-side scripting, which is required to use the web server to submit a form. As a result, during Web 1.0, when the Submit button was clicked on most forms the website visitor’s e-mail client would launch, and the visitor would have to e-mail their form to an e-mail address provided by the website.
This all led to the features of Web 1.0:
- Easy to connect static pages with the system via hyperlinks
- Supports elements like frames and tables with HTML 3.2
- Graphics and a GIF button
- Less interaction between the user and the server
- You can send HTML forms via mail
- Provides only a one-way publishing medium
These seem archaic compared to what we received with Web 2.0. This was the foundation that allowed for "advanced" features we associate with the Internet today. This includes the social media platforms, commercial applications including payment systems and cloud computing.
Limitations
There were a number of limitations regarding this iteration of the Internet.
- All information had to be read by humans. Machines could not read what was posted.
- Content was posted by webmasters with users being consumers.
- Static system without little dynamic interaction.
Webpages got their name because the thinking was similar to a book. Just like a page has information on it that does not change, this is how the early webpages were. The provided information for people to read.
A website was used to transfer information and stimulate off line action. This might be calling the company or visiting a location.
Web 2.0 changed the entire dynamic. This is what brought us to the modern Internet.
It is also laying the foundation for Web 3.0.