# The Early Web (1989-1993) The birth of the World Wide web and development of first web tech, browsers, and servers. ##### 1989 - Tim Berners-Lee proposes the concept of the World Wide Web. ##### 1990 - Time Berners-Lee develops the first web browser: WorldWideWeb. Renamed to Nexus in 1994, to avoid confusion with the World Wide Web. - The first web server is created. ##### 1991 - The first website is published. - HTML is introduced. ##### 1993 - The Mosaic web browser is realized, popularizing the web. - The IMG tag is introduced in HTML, allowing images to be displayed. # Rise of the Commercial Web (1994-1999) Widespread adoption of the web by businesses and consumers, emergence of e-commerce. Introduction of key tech like CSS and JavaScript. ##### 1994 - The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is founded to develop web standards. ##### 1995 - PHP released. Originally an abbreviation of "Personal Home Page" but now stands for "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor." PHP revolutionized web development, introducing server-side scripting for dynamic web pages. - The `<table>` element is added to HTML. - JavaScript is introduced by Netscape. - Internet Explorer released. ##### 1996 - CSS (cascading style sheets) is introduced. - The Web Standards Project is formed to promote browser compatibility. ##### 1997 - The HTML 4.0 specification is released. - The `<iframe>` element is introduced, allowing embedding one HTML document inside another. ##### 1998 - The XML 1.0 specification is released. - The DOM (Document Object Model) Level 1 becomes a W3C recommendation. ##### 1999 - The HTTP/1.1 protocol is released. - The `<meta>` tag is introduced for providing metadata about web pages. # The Dot-Com Era (2000-2003) Rapid boom and bust of internet-based companies. ##### 2000 - The XHTML 1.0 specification is released, introducing a stricter more structured approach to writing HTML, promoting the separation of structure (HTML), presentation (CSS), and behavior (JavaScript), and paving the way for development of XML-based technologies. ##### 2002 - Netscape browser is discontinued, Mozilla Firefox is released. ##### 2003 - Safari web browser released by Apple. - WordPress is launched, starting as a simple blogging platform but quickly evolving into a powerful content management system. It democratized web publishing by providing an easy-to-use and flexible platform for creating websites and blogs without requiring technical knowledge. # Web 2.0 (2004-2009) Focus on user-generated content, social media, and collaboration. Rise of AJAX and emergence of cloud computing. ##### 2004 - Web 2.0 era begins, focusing on user-generated content and interactivity. - Ruby on Rails is released, a groundbreaking web application framework that popularized the concept of "convention over configuration," emphasizing developer efficiency, introducing the MVC architectural pattern, and inspiring many other web frameworks. ##### 2005 - AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) gains popularity for creating dynamic web pages. AJAX revolutionized web development, allowing web pages to make async requests to the server without reloading the entire page. ##### 2006 - jQuery, a JavaScript library for simplifying DOM traversal and manipulation, is released. ##### 2007 - HTML5 specification begins development. - iPhone is released, accelerating mobile web browsing. ##### 2008 - Google Chrome browser released. ##### 2009 - Node.js runtime environment is released, allowing server-side JavaScript. # Mobile Web Era (2010-2015) Proliferation of smartphones and mobile devices and emphasis on responsive design and mobile-first development. ##### 2010 - Responsive web design approach gains traction. - AngularJS released— a front-end web framework for building single-page applications. It was one of the first popular JS frameworks for building dynamic web applications, introducing concepts like two-way data binding, dependency injection, and modular architecture. ##### 2011 - The CSS3 specification is finalized. ##### 2012 - The Flexbox layout module is introduced, providing an efficient way to create responsive layouts in CSS. - The ECMAScript 5.1 specification is released, introducing strict mode and standardizing JSON parsing and serialization. ##### 2013 - React library is released by Facebook, revolutionizing frontend development by introducing a component-based architecture and declarative approach to UI. It popularized the concept of virtual DOM and efficient rendering. ##### 2014 - The HTML5 specification is finalized. Semantic elements like `<header>`, `<nav>`, `<article>`, `<section>` were introduced. Native audio and video playback eliminated the need for plugins like Flash. Other notable features included offline web apps, local storage, and improved form controls. - Vue.js framework is released, gaining popularity due to its simplicity, performance, and incrementally adoptable architecture. ##### 2015 - The ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) specification is released, modernizing JS with features like arrow functions, classes, modules, promises, template literals, destructuring, and spread operator. - The HTTP/2 protocol is standardized, enabling faster and more efficient communication between web browsers and servers. # JavaScript Framework Era (2016-2019) Dominance of JavaScript frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue.js. Emphasis on component-based architecture and single-page applications. Rise of server-side rendering and static site generators. ##### 2016 - Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) concept gains popularity. PWAs combine web and native app experiences, offering offline functionality, push notifications, and home screen install. - CSS grid layout module is introduced, providing a powerful and flexible way to create 2D grid-based layouts in CSS and simplifying the creation of complex, responsive layouts. ##### 2017 - The WebAssembly (Wasm) MVP is released, allowing low-level bytecode to run in browsers. Wasm opens new possibilities for running computationally intensive tasks and porting exists apps to the web. ##### 2018 - GDPR comes into effect in the EU, requiring websites to adhere to data privacy and security standards. ##### 2019 - ECMAScript 2019 spec is released, adding `Array.prototype.flat()`, `Array.prototype.flatMap()`, and `Object.fromEntries()`. - Web Components spec reaches Recommendations status. # The Modern Web (2020-present) Focus on web performance, accessibility, and privacy. Adoption of progressive web apps, emphasis on serverless architecture and cloud-native development, and integration of AI/ML. ##### 2020 - The W3C releases the Web Neural Network API spec, allowing web developers to leverage neural networks and perform inference tasks without relying on server-side processing. ##### 2021 - ECMAScript 2021 spec is released, adding `String.prototype.replaceAll()`, logical assignment operators (`&&=`, `||=`, `??=`), and `Promise.any()`.