> it did not become the world wide network until commercial interests ( and free market capitalism ) took over It was literally world-wide before that, but if

> it did not become the world wide network until commercial interests ( and free market capitalism ) took over It was literally world-wide before that, but if you mean that it boomed: Yes, commercial businesses helped a lot, and so did others: Free, open source software such as the World Wide Web, the entire protocol stack (IP, TCP/UDP, DNS, etc.), SMTP, POP, IRC, *nix/BSD, Mosaic ... let's give credit where it's due! The personal computer revolution and all that went into it. Normal people were just getting their first computers in the 1990s. No point in Internet access without a client machine. Telecommunications innovations such as PPP, modems, etc, which allowed data connections over phone lines. Also, not all the commercial business was 'free market capitalism'; one big one that helped the Internet starting in 1995 was a predatory monopoly.