A timeline of the Web and AI
From Web foundations to generative models, agent protocols and browser API proposals. Announcement dates do not imply universal adoption.
From hypertext to Web agents
A documentary chronology of research and announcements with original sources. Future projections are not presented as established facts.
- 1989–199101
Foundations of the World Wide Web
The original proposal and early Web components establish linked resources accessed through open standards.
Historical source ↗ - 201402
JSON-LD as a Web Recommendation
JSON-LD 1.0 becomes a W3C Recommendation, supporting linked data expressed using JSON structures.
Historical source ↗ - 201703
Transformer architecture
The Attention Is All You Need paper introduces an attention-based architecture important to later generative models.
Historical source ↗ - 202004
Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
A paper proposes linking information retrieval and generation to use external knowledge.
Historical source ↗ - 202205
Rise of conversational interfaces
ChatGPT is publicly introduced in November 2022, bringing conversational generation to broader attention.
Historical source ↗ - 202306
Research on Web agents and generative search
Research on browsing agents and generative search visibility explores evaluation protocols.
Historical source ↗ - 2024-11-2507
Model Context Protocol introduced
Anthropic announces MCP to connect assistants, data sources and tools. Secure use remains an implementation responsibility.
Historical source ↗ - 2025-04-0908
Agent2Agent (A2A) introduced
Google introduces A2A for agent communication. It complements rather than replaces MCP.
Historical source ↗ - 2025–202609
Web & AI work at W3C
W3C organizes community work on Web–AI intersections without making independent WebAI portals a standards body.
Historical source ↗ - 2026-1110
WebMCP: a community draft
A page-tool API proposal explores browser agents. It is not a W3C Recommendation.
Historical source ↗
Connected evidence, not isolated pages
Use the encyclopedia to cross-reference concepts, explore technologies and inspect original sources before drawing conclusions.