Saturday, August 1^st is global World Wide Web Day. It will probably look like any other day-in-the-life. We’ll read, share, post, communicate, chase links and watch television and movies. And a lot of us will do all of those Things on devices that fit right in our pockets!

But just over 25 years ago, Things were different.

There was no YouTube for watching cute animals doing cute Things. No Facebook for posting pictures of your dinner. No Reddit for so effortlessly wasting massive amounts of your life.

If you had a home computer, you were either a scientist or a geek (or both).

When the phone rang, you had to go and pick it up. Then you had to sit right there while you talked because you were tied to a wall by the corded monstrosity.

And if you wanted to waste time, you really had to work at it.

Then the Web changed everyThing.

So, to honor this very special day, I thought I’d share a few little-known Things about the web:

• Though we use the words interchangeably, the Internet and the web are not the same thing. The Internet is a network of networks. The web is a service (like e-mail) that operates over the network.
• The first webcam was invented in 1991 — so people could monitor a coffee pot in the other room to see when it was freshly brewed.
• Way back in 1994, the first online purchase was made: a pepperoni pizza from Pizza Hut.
• Kanye West’s interruption of the VMAs sparked one of the web’s first viral memes.
• The very first YouTube video was pretty boring.

Shopping sites, social networks, videos, communities and blogs have changed the way we get information, how we read and how we shop.

Most importantly, we now have cute puppy videos to watch for hours on end, Reddit trolls to play with and a place to share all Things great and small in our lives.

Thank you, World Wide Web. Life will never be the same.

See you next week,
Bobby