In the beginning...

(which we'll peg at around '91), HTML provided for hyperlinks and very basic page layout.
Then came HTML+ which was modified and eventually evolved into...


HTML 2.0, the IETF Proposed Standard, in November'95.

This version consisted of 49 tags, with which you could

  • format text
  • create hyperlinks
  • include graphics
  • use forms to allow two-way information flow

  • Another way of sending e-mail.

    HTML 2.0 was perfectly functional as a medium for publishing textual content, and even for getting limited input back. When most people had 2400 - 9600 baud modems, unnecessary graphical content was viewed as wasted bandwidth, yet web page designers and Netscape wanted to be able to do more to spice-up the look and feel of the presentation.

    (Though Bill Gates had earlier derided the Internet as "just a fad," he was now beginning to see the light, and was thinking that maybe Microsoft should acquire a browser of its own.)


    HTML 3.0 came out, but was very unpopular, therefore short-lived. Almost as soon as it came out, it was replaced with HTML 3.2, considered to be the true successor to HTML 2.0.

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    Valid HTML 2.0!