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.
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.
Flickr’s API arrived much later, but the rules it relies on—URLs, HTTP semantics, content types, and server-side gateways—were forged in the Web’s first years. This chapter traces the 1990–1994 interface patterns that made media-sharing integrations possible.
Google Maps API arrived much later, but its DNA is visible in the early Web (1990–1994): HTTP’s uniform interface, server-side programs exposed through URLs, and the first patterns for turning data into interactive experiences—including location-based pages.
Before JSON, before REST, and before public developer portals, HTML forms quietly created the first mainstream user-to-server API pattern on the early Web—turning clicks into structured HTTP requests.
Before REST and JSON, CGI scripts turned early websites into programmable interfaces. From 1990–1994, CGI and server-side integration quietly shaped the first usable patterns of web APIs.
Before “web APIs” had a name, early HTTP and the newborn World Wide Web (1990–1994) established the core patterns APIs still use: resources, stateless requests, URIs, and a simple request/response contract.
Chapter 1 (1990–1994) of web API history: how early HTTP turned the newborn Web into a programmable interface—long before “REST” and “JSON” became everyday terms.