Between 1995 and 1998, the web standardized around URLs, HTTP methods, forms, and CGI—creating the practical habits that later matured into resource-oriented APIs and REST architectural style.
Between 1995 and 1998, web APIs moved from one-shot CGI responses to stateful experiences. This chapter traces how forms, URL parameters, early JavaScript, cookies, and server-side sessions taught the web to remember users.
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.