Did Sir Tim Berners Lee invent the Internet? Fact Check

A popular claim surrounding the evolution of the Internet is that it was first invented by British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

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Despite the popular misconception, Sir Tim Berners-Lee did not invent the Internet. Berners-Lee is credited with inventing the World Wide Web (WWW.) However, since the terms “Internet” and “World Wide Web” are often used interchangeably outside of the information technology industry, this has led to many believing they are the same thing, and as such, falsely concluding that Berners-Lee invented the Internet.

So what are the differences between the Internet and the World Wide Web?

The Internet is a more abstract and fundamental term used to describe the expansive global network of interconnected devices that most of us use every day, including the cables, wires, wireless technologies, routing devices, servers and networks that allow devices to communicate with each other, regardless of their physical distances.

The World Wide Web, on the other hand, is a more specific technology that works on the Internet. This is the technology that uses URLs (web addresses) to identify and locate information (web sites and webpages) available on the Internet using software specifically designed for such tasks (a web browser.) Many refer to the World Wide Web as the “customer facing” aspect of the Internet, since it is the World Wide Web that most of us encounter and use when surfing the Internet.

It is important to note that while most users will use these technologies frequently when using the Internet, there are many other technologies – perhaps less frequently used by the average Internet user – that fall outside the scope of the World Wide Web, but would still be encompassed by the term “Internet”.

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The World Wide Web was developed by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, who also developed the first web browser a year later. The technology allowed those who used the Internet to more easily “surf” online and locate information stored on data servers.

The Web Foundation describes Berners-Lee’s early work as such –

By October of 1990, Tim had written the three fundamental technologies that remain the foundation of today’s web (and which you may have seen appear on parts of your web browser):
HTML: HyperText Markup Language. The markup (formatting) language for the web.
URI: Uniform Resource Identifier. A kind of “address” that is unique and used to identify to each resource on the web. It is also commonly called a URL.
HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Allows for the retrieval of linked resources from across the web.

As for the “Internet”, there is no true single answer as to who “invented” it. The Internet is the coming together and concurrent development of several technologies, involving many different people and organisations from both within the United States and Europe. While many individuals were certainly instrumental in the initial development of cyberspace, no one single person has ever been credited with inventing it.

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It is generally accepted however, that ARPANET (the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) which was a large network of military and university servers and computers, served as the basis of the Internet as we know it today.

So while Tim Berners-Lee did invent the World Wide Web, it is important to distinguish this technology from the term “Internet”. Consequently, this means that Sir Tim Berners-Lee did not invent the Internet.