Traditionally, access to the Web has been via fixed-line services on large-screen laptops and desktop computers. Now however, thanks to the WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and WML (Wireless Markup Language) the Web is becoming more accessible by portable and wireless devices like smartphones and tablets. The first mobile phone with Internet connectivity was the Nokia 9000 Communicator in 1996. The feasibility of Internet services via mobile phones was limited though since prices were sky high and network providers did not have developed systems and services to conveniently provide this service on phones. In 2001, Research in Motion released their BlackBerry product which could access the Internet but the growth of mobile phone Internet access was more gradual than expected. It was not until 2008 that more mobile devices accessed the Internet than personal computers. Even as far as we have come with mobile technology mobile Web access still suffers from compatibility and usability problems.
The war still continues today and there is now a new front to concur as the mobile web evolves. As more widespread use of smartphones and other mobile devices has occurred the focus for these browsers has to become mobile. Currently, WebKit has become the most dominant layout engine so far since Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera — have a poorer experience when viewing most mobile versions of Web sites.
Heading into the twenty-first century the web underwent a slight change. This change came to be known as Web 2.0 in order to describe the new use of technology in web sites. Although phrase Web 2.0 bring to mind a new version of the World Wide Web, the major change is in the ways software developers and end-users use the Web. Web 2.0 sites allowed users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social such as networking sites, blogs, video sharing sites, hosted services, web applications, and much more. Features and techniques of Web 2.0 websites include the following, referred to as the acronym SLATES by Andrew McAfee: Search which is the feature of finding information through keyword search, Links which connects information together, Authoring which is the ability to create and update content, Tags which users use to categorize content by adding "tags"—short descriptions—to assist searching, Extensions which are software’s that make the Web an application, and Signals which update users of content changes.