Friday 15 March 2019

The Archdiocese of Toronto on the World Wide Web

 "...Now we have the Internet. The content of what we wish to tell remains the same: Jesus Christ and his Church."

These were the words of Cardinal Ambrozic when the Archdiocese of Toronto officially launched its first website back in 1999.

March 12th of this week marked the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web and Tim Berners-Lee first model of a hyperlinked, global information system. We thought it would be a fun opportunity to take a look back at the history of our online presence.

The Archdiocese of Toronto announced its website on December 16, 1999. In the press release announcing its launch, the Archdiocese described how archtoronto.org "offers visitors not only information on the parishes, social and other services, [but also] public statements and activities of the Archdiocesan community."

Here is what Archtoronto.org first looked like:

 Archtoronto.org Home page, 1999-mid 2000s

Captured on June 2004 by the Internet Archive

The website got a much needed update in 2006:

Archtoronto.org Home Page, 2006-2013

Captured January 2010 by the Internet Archive

And another in 2013:

Archtoronto.org Home Page, 2013-2015

Captured October 2013 by the Internet Archive

And was most recently updated in 2015:

Archtoronto.org Home Page, 2015-present

Captured June 2015 by the Internet Archive

The screenshots of our past websites were all taken from The Internet Archive Wayback Machine. The Internet Archive has saved archtoronto.org 496 times between October 13, 1999 and March 15, 2019. You can learn more about how the Internet Archive works, and the services they provide, here.

Here's to 30 more years of the World Wide Web!

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