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The history of the web hosting dates back to the time when the first program was written for the web in the year 1990 by Tim Berners Lee. After that the program was further developed and many companies joined in the effort to come to the present stage where there is still an exponential growth in the web hosting industry.

Now statistics reveal that there are more than 35,000 businesses that host more than 100 sites in their server. With the increasing competition day by day the industry is growing like anything. By the time you read this there would have been some 100s of companies added to the existing list.

The first program for the World Wide Web was that of a hypertext editor that was executed in the NeXT machine. And the browser used at that time was a 'line mode browser' which was designed by a student Nicola Pellow.

The specifications of the HTML, HTTP and UDI were published on the server so that discussion can be had on these by the people who do research on this.

To access the web, clients that can work on the other machines other than the NeXT were needed and hence the browsers like Viola, Cello, Erwise, and Mosaic came into existence. The World Wide Consortium that was started in 1994 was the milestone where companies started to involve themselves in creating the common protocols for the Web and the new world of web began to evolve.

Earlier than this the software products also had features that used TCP/IP just for giving the networking feature for the product without knowing the future potential of this protocol. In the last few years of the discussion held in the IETF meeting there were lots of discussion going on to extend the TCP/IP protocols and the ways by which it can be extended.

The features of the tools required for this purpose were also discussed. Basic networking products were developed that provided connectivity and the basic services for the internet. The commercial efforts were limited to this initially. Then it became an essential service with the number of user growing exponentially and the products for the World Wide Web flowing in to the market. The developments in the technology also fueled this. Now with the latest developments in the technology there are many products for each of the technology that is available for the internet.

With the IT majors like the Microsoft, IBM, and the Sun Microsystems plunging into the internet market there are many products, languages, and tools available for use in developing the web applications. Web Servers that serve the user with the requested web pages and a host of features targeting the web are made available.

Power servers built by the hardware manufacturers also aid in the growth of the Web Hosting Industry. The internet has undergone a lot of change. From personal computers, to client server to peer-to-peer network it has changed a lot. File sharing, remote login, email and what not, everything is possible through internet. It has not completed its transformation as it is still in the process. Now with internet telephony and internet television the evolution keeps on happening. It's hard to realize what is in store next!