Jim Rapoza Picks the Top Web Technologies of All Time

XML

While HTML was the core of the original Web, XML is the present and the future. Everything from Web services to Web 2.0 to the semantic Web is based on an XML core.

HTML

Carrying on the work of other hypertext pioneers, Tim Berners-Lee made some common sense decisions about linking that broke past the barriers that had limited previous hypertext systems and made it possible to link everyone in a World Wide Web.

Netscape Navigator

The first killer application of the Web, it was for a while synonymous with using the Web.

HTTP

Created by Tim Berners-Lee as a simple protocol built on the Internets TCP/IP, HTTP provides the whole connection layer for the Web.

Apache

Possibly the most successful open-source product of all time and still the Web server that runs the most Web sites today.

NCSA Mosaic

The first truly popular Web browser, built by a team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications that included Marc Andreesen.

CERN httpd

The very first Web server, built to run the first Web sites, CERN httpd was in heavy use for many years after (and was the server that the original PC Week Web site, the forbear to eweek.com, was first run on).

Internet Explorer 3

The browser that won the first browser wars. While Microsoft tactics played a big part in crushing Netscape, IE 3 beat Navigator strictly on features, leading to still-ongoing market dominance for IE.

NCSA httpd

One of the most important Web servers of the early Web, NCSA httpd was the platform that other Web technologies were built on. It lived on for a while as part of the Apache code base.

Firefox

The descendant of the original Netscape browser code, Firefox has quickly gained market share and forced Microsoft to once again pay attention to Web browsers.

SSL

By making it possible to encrypt and secure Web connections from eavesdroppers, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) made it mostly safe to send credit card and other sensitive information over the Web.

ViolaWWW

Though it was quickly eclipsed by the Mosaic Web browser that followed, ViolaWWW was the first breed of what would become the modern Web browser.

WAIS

Basically, the first iteration of search on the Web, WAIS was adapted to add the ability to search for text on Web sites and paved the way for the popular search engines that followed.

CGI

Still in use today, Common Gateway Interface made it possible to build complex data-driven applications for the Web and helped launch the e-commerce boom.

Internet Information Server

People forget that there was once a big market in commercial Web servers designed for businesses. But when Microsoft released IIS as a built-in feature of Windows NT Server, the commercial Web server vendors quickly disappea

Squid

In the early Web, the Squid proxy server was used both for caching content to improve performance and to provide a security layer for users. Squids influence can be seen in many modern Web security products.

Java

Though at first it got attention for its ability to provide embedded Web applications, the true value of Java came on the server side, where it became the core platform for enterprise Web-based applications.

HotMetal

The first truly useful and enterprise-class WYSIWIG tool for building Web sites.

Flash

While it can cause headaches on Web sites that go over the top with animated and intrusive ads, Flash has helped to bring interactivity and rich media applications to the Web.

PHP

Openness, simplicity, flexibility and wide platform support has made PHP one of the most popular scripting languages for Web applications today, especially open-source applications.

Dreamweaver

Outside of Web authors who prefer text editors, nearly all serious Web developers now use Dreamweaver. In fact, the Adobe platform can easily be considered the development environment of the Web.

RSS

While it can be difficult to get people to agree what the letters in RSS stand for, everyone agrees that this simple syndication format has been instrumental in the rise of Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and podcasting.

WebTrends

One of the first Web log analytics tools designed for regular business use.

Blogger

Though pre-dated by some other early blogging and social networking sites, Blogger brought weblogging to the mainstream.

PlaceWare

The product that brought Web conferencing to businesses and made many face-to-face meetings unnecessary.