Nominet celebrates the 25th birthday of the web

Almost half (46%) of Brits say best thing the web has given each of us is an ability to quickly find answers to our questions, according to a new poll from Nominet, the internet company best known for running the .uk internet infrastructure.

The poll* was commissioned as part of a celebration of the web’s birthday today, marking 25 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee published the paper that served as the blueprint for the modern web.

Results show the other widespread benefits of the web are finding old friends (25%) and help with something that was a cause of worry (24%). For 18-24s, the search for a job is higher up the list, with 28% of them citing “finding a job” as the best thing the web has given them, over double the national average of 11%.

These results are borne out by the websites Brits would choose to keep over all others. When asked to name their ‘Desert Island Clicks’ – Facebook tops the list overall.  The social networking site was chosen by (32%) of women, while for men (26%) the BBC website was in the no.1 position.

The top five websites were revealed to be Facebook (24%), BBC (20%), Amazon (9%), Gmail (5%) and Yahoo (5%).

Nominet is inviting web users to add their own milestones and predictions to its online Story of the web, which features the defining moments that have contributed to the web’s success.   An accompanying report, authored by technology journalist Jack Schofield, includes expert commentary on how the web will develop in future.

Contributors to the report and website include Sir Nigel Shadbolt, University of Southampton, web entrepreneur, developer and academic Dave Winer, Dr Jeff Jaffe, CEO of the W3C, leading analyst Richard Holway MBE of TechMarketView, Nominet’s CTO Simon McCalla and CEO Lesley Cowley,OBE and Oxford Internet Institute research fellow, Dr Bernie Hogan.

Nominet’s report will launch alongside global celebrations with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, The World Wide Web Foundation and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for the web@25.

Lesley Cowley, CEO of Nominet, which hosts the UK office of the W3C comments: “The web is such as integral part of everyday life that we simply can’t live without it. It has changed to something beyond what even Sir Tim and his colleagues could have imagined 25 years ago, when they were looking for an easier way to share and structure information. The social, political and economic impact of the web makes it a story we are all part of, and to which we all contribute daily, whether that’s finding the answer to a question or connecting with friends and colleagues.”

Visit Nominet’s Story of the Web to add your story or prediction. You can also download the full PDF report at the site.