From HTTP’s earliest request/response patterns to the first practical server interfaces, 1990–1994 quietly planted the design instincts behind today’s composable web APIs—uniform URLs, simple verbs, and the idea that you can stitch capabilities together through links and messages.
From HTTP/0.9 to early CGI gateways, 1990–1994 quietly created the first web APIs—and the first lessons in security testing and abuse prevention.
In the Web’s earliest era, storefronts became “programmable” long before the term API was mainstream. From HTTP’s minimalist request/response model to HTML forms and CGI, the early 1990s set the template for e-commerce endpoints, carts, and integrations.
From HTTP’s earliest request/response patterns to CGI scripts and directory-like endpoints, 1990–1994 set the API-shaped foundation that FHIR later embraced for healthcare interoperability.
Long before today’s cloud provider APIs, early HTTP servers, HTML forms, and CGI scripts (1990–1994) taught developers a powerful idea: infrastructure can be controlled through simple, stateless web interfaces.
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 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 earliest years (1990–1994), “APIs” weren’t yet a mainstream product—but HTTP endpoints already needed protection. This chapter traces how rate limiting quietly became a security and business tool as early servers faced scarce resources, buggy clients, and the first automated traffic.
In the early 1990s, the Web had HTTP requests and shared documents—but not “web APIs” or delegated authorization. This chapter traces the authorization reality of 1990–1994 and explains how those constraints foreshadowed OAuth 2.0.
Between 1990 and 1994, the Web’s simplest building blocks—URLs, HTTP requests, and server-side gateway scripts—quietly formed the earliest “public web APIs.” This chapter traces how those early interfaces made proto-mashups possible long before the term existed.