Having worked on the web for 20+ years, I thought I had a good understanding of web history.
Who created the web, HyperText Markup Language (HTML), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
How web standards came about.
But when it comes to the hyperlink—what most people call a link—it turns out I didn’t know much about its background.
I do now, because of this three-minute TED video by Margaret Gould Stewart.
Three things I learned about the hyperlink that I didn’t know before:
- U.S. government scientist Vannevar Bush first put forth the concept of the memex, a personal library where you could gather all the books, articles, and other resources you have access to.
- In the 1960’s, Ted Nelson took the idea of the memex further, with Project Xanadu connecting not only your information, but other people’s information. He called the created and linked content “hypertext” and “hypermedia.”
- In 1982, University of Maryland researchers created HyperTies, system that first used text as a link.
The video is short, a little over three minutes. Hope you enjoy it!
Source: TED
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