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Happy birthday internet, old buddy, old chum! We don't know what we'd do without you!

Yes, today (March 12, 2014) is officially the internet's 25th birthday. In honour of the occasion, Google's home page includes a cake with a “25″ candle on top to remind everyone.

The world wide web, as modern users may know, was founded on March 12, 1989 by (Sir) Tim Burners-Lee. But, though Burner-Lee is credited with 'founding the web', the internet itself can be traced back decades earlier. Right back to 1957 in fact with the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA - later DARPA). Historians love to credit the genesis of this auspicious organisation to President Dwight Eisenhower (who pushed for the creation of ARPA), with the inference being that the 5 star General launched ARPA because he had a burning desire to push the boundaries of scientific knowledge. When in fact the truth is far more mundane - and some might even say, devious. Because while (what came to be known as ARPA) had been bubbling on US university campuses for several years, it had not received any significant funding from Washington. Then, in October 1957, the unthinkable happened. Russia launched Sputnik, the world's first satellite. And suddenly, Bible bashing middle-America was confronted with the unsettling knowledge that those damn Ruskies could see EVERYTHING they were doing...from space!

Needless to say, a US President was never going to take this slap in the face, lying down. So Eisenhower pushed through ARPA (which of course was actually a part of the Department of Defense), and so the war for technological supremacy was cranked up a couple more notches.

The creation of ARPA led to a gentleman by the name of Ted Nelson creating Project Xanadu in 1960. And it was Nelson who coined the term ‘Hypertext’ in 1963. Hypertext is contained in hyperlinks (which are known today simply as ‘links’) and is the core component of HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) which is the language of the web as we know it.

Berners-Lee comes into the picture (historically speaking) around 1980 when he came up with the concept of the World Wide Web (as it would become) while working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. During his research Berners-Lee wrote a rudimentary program for storing information using random associations. The program - named 'Enquire' - was only ever intended for his own personal use however, and was never actually published.

Fast forward to March 12, 1989 and Berners-Lee submitted a proposal to CERN seeking to build 'A web of notes with links between them'. And so...the web was born. And now, 25 years later, we all get to wish the Internet a very happy birthday indeed!

In Tim Berners-Lee's own words :

On the 25th birthday of the web, I ask you to join in - to help us imagine and build the future standards for the web, and to press for every country to develop a digital bill of rights to advance a free and open web for everyone. Learn more and speak up for the sort of web we really want with #web25.

Although most people (myself included) utilise the words 'Internet' and “World Wide Web” to mean the exact same thing, they're actually different. Not that it matters too much in the normal line of conversation you understand, but for those anal-retentive or finicky enough to care (and just so I don't get inundated by emails from nerdy undergrads with too much time on their hands and a 24/7 hard on for InternetFactsAreUs), The 'Internet' is a pan Galactic gargle blasting way of connecting a gazillion computers together via the standard Internet protocol TCP/IP suite, while the ‘World Wide Web’ is a system of Hyperlinked documents accessible via the internet. 

All the nerds happy now? Good. Then we can move on...

Let's sign off on this auspicious birthday by reminding ourselves of two very important points. One, without people like Sir Tim Burners-Lee, folks like me would have to get a real job! And as much as I like to think that I'd be a shoe-in for the role of Brad Pitt's on-set body double if I needed to find an alternate career path, I suspect that in reality I might have to look slightly further afield...

And two, let's take a moment to appreciate how RADICALLY DIFFERENT all our lives today would be without the internet as we know it. So different in fact as to be unrecognisable. With a quite staggering 6 billion web searches performed every day, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that for all of us, the internet and the world wide web have become as much a part of our daily lives, as breathing in an out.

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Want to master SEO? Then book in yourself or your staff for some SEO Training Sydney today! Sydney's #1 SEO Trainer Brian M Logan shows you everything you need to get your company website on the first page of Google. SEO Training can be in-house (we come to you) or classroom based (you come to us).

Or you can always call us on 0425 204 887 if you want to leave your SEO Sydney requirements to the experts. Your website's 1st Page of Google results are guaranteed in writing in the contract.

Enjoy this free article? Great! Don't forget to Like it, Tweet it and LINK to it from your blog or website. Your sharing of the page with your friends is greatly appreciated! :)