All About HTML
Lessons
When did the web get pictures?
Websites on the early Internet looked very much like Lesson 1. They could not include images, audio, video, or any other embedded content. As soon as the ability to include multimedia content was added, it was immediately used and abused by every webmaster with a keyboard. Background images frequently obscured text, music played on page load, and sometimes programs on the user's computer would open and try to connect to a video stream! It's fortunate we don't have annoying videos that play on page load today, and that advertisers keep user experience forefront in their minds when creating web ads for the modern Internet!
A version of the below image was among the first uploaded to the web, well before the commercial Internet existed. These ladies performed songs about things like how scientists would rather spend long nights with particle colliders than go on dates with their girlfriends.
Data display or page layout?
The ability to add images was a game-changer, as was the addition of tables, which were introduced with the express purpose of displaying data, as shown below:
| Day of Week | Celestial Body | Element |
|---|---|---|
| Sunday | Sun | Yin |
| Monday | Moon | Yang |
| Tuesday | Mars | Fire |
| Wednesday | Mercury | Water |
| Thursday | Jupiter | Wood |
| Friday | Venus | Metal |
| Saturday | Saturn | Earth |
Tables are still supported on the modern web, however they are no longer used to create page layouts, as I have done here in Lesson 2. Please only use tables for good (data management) instead of for evil (layout)!