A browser that could also make the Web
Tim Berners-Lee’s first browser was not just a window for reading pages. Called WorldWideWeb, it could also edit them: a user could open a document, change its text, and create links to other documents. That mattered because the Web was designed as a way for people to connect and share information, not merely browse a fixed collection of pages.
A link is a reference embedded in one document that takes a reader to another. The browser made those references usable: instead of needing to know where information was stored or how to retrieve it, a reader could follow a link. Behind the scenes, the software interpreted the document’s markup—the simple instructions that identify elements such as headings and links—and displayed the result on screen.
Why the name changed
The program and the Web were easy to confuse because both were initially called WorldWideWeb. Berners-Lee later renamed the browser Nexus, leaving “the Web” to refer to the larger system of linked information. The distinction is still useful: a browser is an application, while the Web is the network of documents and links that applications let people explore.
The first browser was built on a NeXT computer at CERN, where the Web was being developed. Its editing ability reflected an early ambition: people should be able to contribute to the information they encountered, not only consume it. That original combination—reading, following links, and editing in one program—makes the Web’s first browser a glimpse of the system’s collaborative purpose as well as its beginnings.
