The World Wide Web recently turned 24. Yes. You read it right. On Aug 7 in 1991, the World Wide Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee following his dream of a better and easier way to communicate via computers on a global scale.

It was an invention that we all rely upon very much in our day-to-day lives to interact on the Internet and ever since then it has changed our lives immeasurably.

Digging into some basics, the World Wide Web is often used without much distinction with Internet. However, the World wide Web actually functions as a layer on top of the Internet, helping to make it more functional.

With the invention of the World Wide Web, users today are able to experience the true sense of Internet and from a mere 54,98,269 users in 2000, Internet and World Wide Web has been accessed by a whopping 24,31,98,922 Indians in 2014. Around 40 percent of the world's population has an Internet connection accounting for over 3 billion users.

The NeXT Computer used by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN

Have you wondered how this world would be today if Tim Berners-Lee had not invented the World Wide Web? Well, there would be no online shopping, no Amazon, no Flipkart, no Google which means no research and no social media, no YouTube and most shockingly, there would be no place to upload our selfies! Imagine!

However, Tim invented it and almost soon after it was invented, the World Wide Web and Internet reached India. While it was still not available to the general public, it was on the verge of reaching few people one by one.

Surprisingly, the charismatic Indian actor Shammi Kapoor was the first person to have had access to the Internet and the World Wide Web in India. It was back in 1993 when Shammi Kapoor founded and also chaired the Internet Users Community of India (IUCI) while extensively promoting the Internet in India.

Many sources also claim Shammi to have been downloading at least 8 - 10 MB of data almost every night up until 4 AM. He had also played a major role in setting up Internet organizations like the Ethical Hackers Association.

However, what made the World Wide Web even more attractive was that CERN waived its royalties in April 1993. This paved the way for innovation and made the web what it is today. Though companies profited from this open platform, they had their own peaks and troughs. The dot-com bubble burst in the late 90's saw a number of web startups go bust. But the ones that have survived – Amazon, Google and eBay – have today become industry giants.

Tags : World Wide Web, Internet