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Tim Berners-Lee demonstrates the world wide web to people at a conference in Texas in 1991 CERN

World's first ever web page to be brought back to life

CERN is recreating the website that launched the world wide web to mark the 20th anniversary of the Tim Berners-Lee invention.

THE WORLD’S FIRST web page will be dragged out of cyberspace and restored for today’s internet browsers as part of a project to celebrate 20 years of the web, organisers have said.

The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said it had begun recreating the website that launched that World Wide Web, as well as the hardware that made the groundbreaking technology possible.

The world’s first website was about the technology itself, according to CERN, allowing early browsers to learn about the new system and create their own web pages.

The project will allow future generations to understand the origin and importance of the Web and its impact on modern life, CERN web manager Dan Noyes told AFP.

“We’re going to put these things back in place, so that a web developer or someone who’s interested 100 years from now can read the first documentation that came out from the World Wide Web team,” he said.

The project was launched to mark the 20th anniversary of CERN making the World Wide Web available to the world for free.

British physicist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web, also called W3 or just the Web, at CERN in 1989 to help physicists to share information, but at the time it was just one of several such information retrieval systems using the internet.

“It’s one of the biggest days in the history of the Web,” Noyes said of the day in 1993 when the web officially began.

CERN’s gesture of giving away the Web for free was what made it just explode.

Noyes said that other information sharing systems that had wanted to charge royalties, like the University of Minnesota’s Gopher, had “just sort of disappeared into history”.

By making the birth of the Web visible again, the CERN team aims to emphasise the idea of freedom and openness it was built on, Noyes said.

“In the early days, you could just go in and take the code and make it your own and improve it. That is something we have all benefitted from,” he said.

While CERN was not promoting any specific ideology, “we want to preserve that idea of openness and freedom to collect and collaborate,” said Noyes.

- © AFP, 2013

Read: 11 internet firsts you probably never heard of >

Read: Google to change how it displays search results in Europe >

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    Mute Stray Mutt
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    Dec 10th 2012, 4:28 PM

    Words fail me.
    How can apple have made such fundamental error.
    Mind you the people who got lost should have known better not to rely on the apple map.

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    Mute Colin Murray
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    Dec 10th 2012, 5:19 PM

    I would be more worried about pilots using iphones to navigate!

    102
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    Mute Oisín Tarrant
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    Dec 10th 2012, 5:09 PM

    So long as the Israelis don’t use Google Maps to bomb the gaza strip.
    Dont think Wexford is ready for a jihad

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    Mute Oisín Tarrant
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    Dec 10th 2012, 5:11 PM

    Wicklow sorry, not Wexford

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    Mute Mairead Hynes
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    Dec 10th 2012, 10:05 PM

    Cos Wexford was born ready? :)

    26
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    Mute Mark Vieregge
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    Dec 10th 2012, 4:59 PM

    Using apple maps is like my Garmin 10 years ago: no small roads, missing areas and many mistakes.
    Absolutely horrible experience.

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    Mute graham galvin
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    Dec 10th 2012, 4:25 PM

    i dont trust all these emaps & sat navs because of the amount of mistakes on them.stick to the old fashioned paper fold out maps.never go wrong.

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    Mute John Ó'Ríordán
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    Dec 10th 2012, 4:46 PM

    I’ve used Garmin and Google Maps across a number of countries and continents and have never once been led astray.

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    Mute David Kearney
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    Dec 10th 2012, 6:36 PM

    Plenty of satnavs and google maps work fine but after all the bad publicity Apple maps has had I’m surprised anyone is following it. They are really bad.

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Dec 10th 2012, 7:18 PM

    Google maps is the biz. It can find the pokiest townland in any parish anywhere. And it’s free!

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    Mute Peter Naughnane
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    Dec 10th 2012, 7:43 PM

    I think the most concerning thing here is, Alan Shatter thinks pilots use iPhones to navigate. Did he seriously think a plane was going to land in the middle of Dublin?

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    Mute Mary
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    Dec 10th 2012, 6:05 PM

    Is there anyway of getting the old google maps back?I can’t stand the apple one everything seems wrong on it.

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    Mute john fox
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    Dec 10th 2012, 6:14 PM

    yes buy a a Samsung

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    Mute KarlMarcks
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    Dec 10th 2012, 6:22 PM

    Put a link to Google Maps on your home screen. Easy.

    I’m an Apple fan but their map app is utter sh1t. Google is fine.

    Satnavs can be rubbish too. Friend from Oz recently visiting was sent miles out of way by satnav in rental car. He should have followed my careful directions.

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    Mute John Ó'Ríordán
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    Dec 10th 2012, 7:33 PM

    Or a HTC One. Best phone ever hands down.

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    Mute Barry Doyle
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    Dec 10th 2012, 6:58 PM

    I’m currently in my house in Dublin…. but apple maps say I’m on the moon… Hmmmm

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    Mute Ciarán Corson
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    Dec 11th 2012, 1:22 PM

    This is downright moronic. A multi million dollar firm and it cannot provide a simple map solution.
    Apple were very stupid to get rid of Google maps and then not replace it with a guaranteed working map solution.

    How they haven’t been fined by someone for loss of revenue (trips made wrong way, late for business trips) is beyond me. I’m not going to get into a conversation about the benefits of iOS and Android, but how can a map be that hard to get right?
    If Google can do it , surely apple can do it too?
    You’d think it, but obviously not.

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    Mute Pat Casey
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    Dec 10th 2012, 5:32 PM

    Apple crapple.

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    Mute My Two Cents
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    Dec 10th 2012, 5:06 PM

    I never want to go to Oz….full stop.

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    Mute Shane Ferguson
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    Dec 10th 2012, 6:01 PM

    Either did Dorothy. But that’s Apple for you.

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Dec 10th 2012, 7:22 PM

    Shane, that is excellent on so many levels :)

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Dec 10th 2012, 11:50 PM

    Being misdirected in Ireland is one thing, being misdirected in Australia with the heat and huge distances is a whole different ballgame. No good. And awful publicity for Apple.

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    Mute Sandra Sullivan
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    Dec 10th 2012, 4:36 PM

    All maps have flaws. The media are over hyping the Apple maps system and the few mistakes on it.

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    Mute Creamy Hamstrings
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    Dec 10th 2012, 4:45 PM

    Even if it was just ‘a few mistakes’ (which it’s not!) the ones that are there are quite serious if it means that people are getting trapped in life threatening situations as a result.

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    Mute Gamma
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    Dec 10th 2012, 4:52 PM

    somebody clearly owns an iPhone!

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    Mute Paul Furey
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    Dec 10th 2012, 7:21 PM

    Sandra you can only be an apple fanboi – of does that include girls. If you want to anywhere, you cannot use apple maps. Oconnell street in Dublin is grand. That’s on apple maps.

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    Mute Nigel Nix
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    Dec 11th 2012, 1:31 PM

    “They also managed to locate Dublin Zoo just off Grafton Street.” – I believe they actually got that one right… lmao

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