The Future of the Web and Web Building Tools
This paper examines the role of web building tools in driving the expansion of the internet and ecommerce. Beginning with the early dominance of raw HTML and the technical barriers it posed, the paper traces the shift brought about by WYSIWYG editors such as Microsoft FrontPage, Adobe GoLive, and Macromedia Dreamweaver. It then explores newer developments including peer-to-peer networking and weblogs as integrated, community-driven web creation platforms. The paper concludes by reflecting on how these technological changes may be reshaping human consciousness and the broader nature of online communication and commerce.
- Introduction: The Web's Dependence on Accessible Tools: Ease-of-use tools drive web and ecommerce growth
- Early Web Development and HTML: HTML origins and early browser standardization
- The WYSIWYG Revolution: WYSIWYG editors opened web creation to everyone
- Major Web Building Applications: FrontPage, GoLive, and Dreamweaver lead the field
- Peer-to-Peer Networks, Weblogs, and Integrated Tools: P2P and blogs as next-generation web creation
- The Future of the Web and Human Consciousness: Technology reshaping perception and communication
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What makes this paper effective
- Provides a clear chronological narrative, moving from early HTML-only development through WYSIWYG editors to emerging community-driven tools, giving the argument a logical forward momentum.
- Uses specific statistical examples (e.g., Sri Lanka's 3,800% growth, South America's 125% cumulative average) to ground abstract claims about internet expansion in concrete evidence.
- Connects technological development to broader social and commercial outcomes, showing how ease-of-use tools directly enabled ecommerce growth and wider participation.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the use of cause-and-effect reasoning across multiple levels: it links software accessibility to user growth, user growth to ecommerce viability, and both to wider cultural and cognitive shifts. This layered causal structure allows a narrow technical topic to open into a broader argument about the internet's social future.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a thesis about ease-of-use as the engine of web growth, then provides statistical evidence of that growth. It historicizes HTML before introducing WYSIWYG tools as a turning point. Specific software products are named as examples, followed by a discussion of P2P and blogging as the next evolution. The paper closes with a speculative, philosophically oriented reflection on consciousness and the future direction of the web, supported by a cited source.
Introduction: The Web's Dependence on Accessible Tools
The future of the Web as an arena for information exchange and ecommerce lies in the effective creation, editing, and presentation of clear, cogent data. In many respects, the web's expansion depends largely on web building software and applications. The present growth and development of the internet is mainly due to one simple reason: the increased participation of millions of users who add to the information base. The success of ecommerce is equally dependent on increased online usage. Both of these factors rest on another critical element — the ability to add information and communicate easily on the Web. This, in turn, depends on the ease of use that software and online applications can provide.
The internet is developing at an exponential rate. Not only is the number of online users increasing, but the internet is changing the way we interact, communicate, and do business. Statistical evidence illustrates this dramatic increase in Web usage over the past several years. In Sri Lanka, the number of internet users grew from 6 to 234 — an increase of 3,800% — while in Pakistan the figure jumped from 17 to 386, nearly 2,200%. Currently, more new information is being created and revised on websites (plus all connected intranets) in less than a week than was available on the entire World Wide Web during its formative years. Over the last five years, internet user growth in South America reached a staggering cumulative average of 125%, compared to 119% in Asia, 87% in Africa, and 80% in the United States and Canada (Smith T., 2003, p. 81).
Early Web Development and HTML
In the very early years of the internet's development, web pages could only be constructed by directly writing HyperText Markup Language (HTML). HTML has been defined as "a markup language designed for the creation of web pages and other information viewable in a browser. The focus of HTML is on the presentation of information — paragraphs, fonts, italics, tables, and so forth — rather than the semantics — what the words mean" (Onelook). Web pages were created using simple text editors such as Windows Notepad to write the underlying syntax. This language, displayed in conjunction with an application known as the web browser, allowed early browsers like Netscape to standardize the Web so that all web pages could be displayed, viewed, and interacted with by users.
While HTML was relatively easy to master and implement, it remained largely the preserve of the more technically minded — those who had the time and patience to learn the language. This was all to change dramatically with the introduction of WYSIWYG applications and tools intended for web building and creation.
The WYSIWYG Revolution
WYSIWYG is an acronym for "What You See Is What You Get." WYSIWYG applications, or web editors, provided a user-friendly interface and were often template-driven, facilitating easy web page creation without any knowledge of the underlying HTML or other coding languages. This meant that the ordinary user could easily create and maintain web pages for personal or commercial use. This development in turn led to an increase in the user base for communication and commerce, providing not only a new market but new marketing strategies and methods of trading and doing business online.
As a result of this lucrative market, the ease of use of web building tools increased steadily over the years. They became more effective and allowed for the construction of websites incorporating the latest technologies — such as Flash — without the user needing to know more than the essential basics. The future of the Web and the internet as a whole therefore depends on the interactive input and output of information, which is facilitated by increasingly effective web building tools.
Bibliography
Onelook. Retrieved April 18, 2005. Web site: http://www.onelook.com/?w=HTML&ls=a
Smith, T. (2003). The Digi-Human. KLixxx Magazine, Vol. 4, June 2003, pp. 80–85.
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