Quotes By Tim Berners Lee

When you go onto the internet, if you really rummage around randomly then how do you hope to find something of any of value?

I want to know if I look up a whole lot of books about some form of cancer that that's not going to get to my insurance company and I'm going to find my insurance premium is going to go up by 5% because they've figured I'm looking at those books.

The people who designed the tools that make the Net run had their own ideas for the future.

On the web the thinking of cults can spread very rapidly and suddenly a cult which was 12 people who had some deep personal issues suddenly find a formula which is very believable.

Everybody who runs a Web site knows we're not assured of compatibility, and we could end up with a split.

Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true and the tendency to miss lunch.

I'm an optimist about humanity in general, I suppose.

One of the issues of social networking silos is that they have the data and I don't.

IT professionals have a responsibility to understand the use of standards and the importance of making Web applications that work with any kind of device.

The Google algorithm was a significant development. I've had thank-you emails from people whose lives have been saved by information on a medical website or who have found the love of their life on a dating website.

Compared even to the development of the phone or TV, the Web developed very quickly.

One of the things I like about the computer that I use is that I can write a program on it or I can download a program on to it and run it. That's kind of important to me, and that's also kind of important to the whole future of the internet... obviously a closed platform is a serious brake on innovation.

I hope we will use the Net to cross barriers and connect cultures.

We need diversity of thought in the world to face the new challenges.

The world's urban poor and the illiterate are going to be increasingly disadvantaged and are in danger of being left behind. The web has added a new dimension to the gap between the first world and the developing world. We have to start talking about a human right to connect.

The Mobile Web Initiative is important - information must be made seamlessly available on any device.

The Web as I envisaged it, we have not seen it yet. The future is still so much bigger than the past.

The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation.

My own personal preference is that the consumer, the individual person should be protected because individual people and the difference between individual people and the diversity we have between people on the planet is so important.

Physicists analyze systems. Web scientists, however, can create the systems.

When it comes to professionalism, it makes sense to talk about being professional in IT. Standards are vital so that IT professionals can provide systems that last.

It was really hard explaining the Web before people just got used to it because they didn't even have words like click and jump and page.

Imagine that everything you are typing is being read by the person you are applying to for your first job. Imagine that it's all going to be seen by your parents and your grandparents and your grandchildren as well.

The original idea of the web was that it should be a collaborative space where you can communicate through sharing information.

I suppose it's amazing when you think how many things people get involved in that don't work.

That idea of URL was the basic clue to the universality of the Web. That was the only thing I insisted upon.

Any good software engineer will tell you that a compiler and an interpreter are interchangeable.

Most larger companies now see that for the market to grow, Web infrastructure must be royalty-free.

Intellectual property is an important legal and cultural issue. Society as a whole has complex issues to face here: private ownership vs. open source, and so on.

I basically wrote the code and the specs and documentation for how the client and server talked to each other.