From HTTP’s earliest GET-only world to HTML forms, CGI, URL standardization, and early cookies, 1990–1994 quietly created the patterns that later became payment APIs and modern checkout flows.
From 1990 to 1994, the Web had URLs, MIME types, and early HTTP—but not browser-native audio/video. This chapter explains how those early interfaces shaped what HTML5 media APIs eventually became.
Server-Sent Events (SSE) arrived much later, but the need for streaming updates was visible from the Web’s earliest days. This chapter traces how HTTP’s simple request/response model (1990–1994) created both the problem—and the early experiments—that led to modern streaming web APIs.
In the Web’s first years, HTTP’s simple request/response model made “real-time” feel out of reach. This chapter traces the early interface patterns—HTTP/0.9, evolving headers, and CGI scripts—that set the stage for later solutions like the WebSocket API.
Long before Web Workers existed, early 1990s browsers and HTTP libraries faced the same problem: how to avoid locking up the user experience while fetching and processing network data. This chapter traces the API roots that later made true background processing possible.
In 1990–1994, the Web didn’t have a Canvas API—yet early HTTP interfaces, URLs, MIME types, and server-side image generation established the core API patterns that later enabled rich visual web applications.
Long before browsers exposed precise location, early HTTP servers and CGI scripts (1990–1994) improvised “where are you?” signals using IP addresses, DNS, and user input—foundational ideas that later shaped the Geolocation API and modern contextual web experiences.
In the Web’s first years (1990–1994), there was no localStorage, no IndexedDB, and not even JavaScript. Yet developers still needed state. This chapter traces how early HTTP interfaces, forms, and the first cookie experiments pushed the Web toward browser storage APIs and richer client applications.
In the early 1990s, the Web didn’t have RSS or Atom—but it did have the core ingredients of syndication APIs: stable URLs, machine-friendly representations, and repeatable retrieval via HTTP. This chapter traces how early HTTP interfaces and publishing habits made feeds inevitable.
Long before “webhooks” became a common term, the early Web (1990–1994) introduced patterns—HTTP endpoints, CGI scripts, gateways, and server-generated callbacks—that made event-driven integration possible.