15 years of the World Wide Web

[Shadow]

CNN

From CNN's Kristie Lu Stout

(CNN) -- Spark looks at the top 10 "Web moments" since the World Wide Web was born 15 years ago, and asks viewers to vote for the one they think had the most impact in the Web's history.

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee launched the World Wide Web, a multimedia branch of the Internet.

With Berners-Lee's "http protocol," computer jockeys the world over began making the Net easier to use with point-and-click programs.

Browsers such as Mosaic and, later, Netscape Navigator would help popularize the Web, and let a billion Web pages bloom.

Anyone could access the network, and anyone could decide what went online.

The Web became a powerful, liberating force that brought people closer together, and shaped new businesses.

Take Yahoo, which started as a quirky list favorite links that turned into the go-to site of the 90s.

Or Hotmail, one of the first Web services to give away e-mail for free.

And Ebay, which linked up buyers and sellers of nearly everything to become the world's biggest trading post.

And of course Amazon, the online behemoth of books.

[JoJo]

Wow, has it been that long? There wasn't much to look at 12 years ago when I started, but I was hooked immediately. Remember those days, AOL and Compuserve were only offering their own "walled off" material, but since I worked at a university, I got on this crazy new thing called "the internet" for free! It needed more than a few computer science majors playing around to make it into what it is today. (for better or worse)

[lili]

You're right. I would be lost without this keyboard underneath my fingers