Overview

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the foundational markup language of the World Wide Web, first proposed by physicist Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 while working at CERN. Originally designed to share scientific documents among researchers, HTML has evolved through multiple versions, with HTML5 becoming the current standard in 2014. The language is maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which ensures compatibility across different browsers and devices. HTML works alongside CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for presentation and JavaScript for interactivity, forming the core trio of web technologies. As of 2024, HTML powers over 1.9 billion websites globally, making it one of the most widely used technologies in human history. Its simplicity and flexibility have enabled the explosive growth of the internet from academic circles to global commerce, communication, and entertainment.

How It Works

HTML operates through a system of markup tags enclosed in angle brackets (like ) that define the structure and content of web pages. These tags create elements such as headings (

to

), paragraphs (

), links (), images (), and lists (

,
). When a user requests a webpage, the server sends an HTML file to their browser, which parses the document tree structure (DOM) and renders it visually. Attributes within tags provide additional information, such as href="URL" for link destinations or src="image.jpg" for image sources. HTML5 introduced semantic elements like
,