Happy Internaut Day! Its 25 years since Sir Tim Berners allowed access of internet to the public

Today marks 25 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the internet, allowed access of internet to the public giving the rise of the Internaut Day.

The Internaut day is celebrated on August 23, anniversary of the World Wide Web, which was developed in the CERN laboratories (Enquire / EV project) in Switzerland during 1989 – 1990, and opened to new users after that day in 1991.

Internaut is a portmanteau of the words Internet and astronaut and refers to a designer, operator, or technically capable user of the Internet. Beginning with participants in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), it gradually expanded to members of the Internet Society (ISoc) and the larger community

According to Wikipedia internaut is also an online savvy, typically through years of online experience, with a thorough knowledge of how to use search engines, Internet resources, forums, newsgroups and chat rooms to find information. The more someone knows about the Internet, its history and politics, the more likely the term internaut fits them.

The less he or she knows the more likely a different term would be more fitting. Other terms roughly analogous with internaut are cybernaut and netizen, though each has its own connotation.

The common thread among them in English is an implication of experience and knowledge of the Internet or cyberspace that goes beyond the casual user. The French, however, use the term to describe any Internet user.

The creation of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee enabled non-technical computer experts to use the Internet in a simple and quick way, making it accessible to billions of people around the world.

The internet has now become an integral part of our day to day lives. While there are still many who don’t have access to it, the number of Internet users increases every day. Take for instance there are 1.07 billion websites, though an estimated 75 percent are not active, according to Internet Live Stats. There are 4.73 billion webpages and while the internet is more than just the World Wide Web, it’s worth noting that there are 3.4 billion people on the internet.

Finally, if you really want to go all nostalgic, be sure to check out the very first website, which went live a couple of weeks earlier on August 6. Or look at cat GIFs. In June 2016, the creator of the Internet had said that he wants it to be decentralised.