Web "will last 500 years"

[Simon]

Web pages written today will still be readable in 500 years, according to Opera's chief technology officer Hakon Wium Lie.

At an Opera event in Oslo, that firm's CTO and so-called "father of CSS" noted his former colleague Sir Tim Berners-Lee predicted over a decade ago that HTML4 - the current web standard - would still be readable in 200 years.

"I'm going to up him," said Wium Lie. "This is going to last 500 years. That's not a random number, it's very convenient number, as none of us are going to be around and you can't come back and say hey, you were wrong."

Read more: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/361933/web-will-last-500-years

[pctech]

Something leads me to think he's fibbing but I can't quite put my finger on it.......

[zappaDPJ]

Well I think it's pretty obvious the data that's on the net today will be accessible for a very long time i.e. forever, but to say that it will still be readable using today's standards is ridiculous. I give it 10-25 years at the most before it's all converted into something completely incompatible. I don't think these people understand the true pace of technological advancement.

[pctech]

Look at the guy's surname.....

[zappaDPJ]

 

[Fox]

hmmm....500 year old porn anyone?

[Niall]

I'll be very surprised if the web looks anything like it does now, in one hundred years, let alone 200. Although if BT have anything to say about it, I expect FTTC will still be rolling out in 500 years.