<P> During the early years of the Internet, email and similar mechanisms were also fundamental to allow people to access resources that were not available due to the absence of online connectivity . UUCP was often used to distribute files using the' alt. binary' groups . Also, FTP e-mail gateways allowed people that lived outside the US and Europe to download files using ftp commands written inside email messages . The file was encoded, broken in pieces and sent by email; the receiver had to reassemble and decode it later, and it was the only way for people living overseas to download items such as the earlier Linux versions using the slow dial - up connections available at the time . After the popularization of the Web and the HTTP protocol such tools were slowly abandoned . </P> <P> As the Internet grew through the 1980s and early 1990s, many people realized the increasing need to be able to find and organize files and information . Projects such as Archie, Gopher, WAIS, and the FTP Archive list attempted to create ways to organize distributed data . In the early 1990s, Gopher, invented by Mark P. McCahill offered a viable alternative to the World Wide Web . However, in 1993 the World Wide Web saw many advances to indexing and ease of access through search engines, which often neglected Gopher and Gopherspace . As popularity increased through ease of use, investment incentives also grew until in the middle of 1994 the WWW's popularity gained the upper hand . Then it became clear that Gopher and the other projects were doomed fall short . </P> <P> One of the most promising user interface paradigms during this period was hypertext . The technology had been inspired by Vannevar Bush's "Memex" and developed through Ted Nelson's research on Project Xanadu and Douglas Engelbart's research on NLS . Many small self - contained hypertext systems had been created before, such as Apple Computer's HyperCard (1987). Gopher became the first commonly used hypertext interface to the Internet . While Gopher menu items were examples of hypertext, they were not commonly perceived in that way . </P> <P> In 1989, while working at CERN, Tim Berners - Lee invented a network - based implementation of the hypertext concept . By releasing his invention to public use, he ensured the technology would become widespread . For his work in developing the World Wide Web, Berners - Lee received the Millennium technology prize in 2004 . One early popular web browser, modeled after HyperCard, was ViolaWWW . </P>

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