Web set for major change as developing world comes online

Experts have warned internet users to get ready for the web's next major change as more people come online from different backgrounds and countries.

Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web and co-founder of the Web Science Trust, told attendees at the Profiting from the New Web conference today to expect the web as they know it to shift.

Only around 20 per cent of the world uses the internet at the moment, and the environment will be very different when the remainder moves online, Berners-Lee warned.

"The other 80 per cent have different cultures. They will build different web sites. Don't expect it to be all in English anymore," he said.

"At the moment we are working with translation software so it is ready to help us understand the content when the change happens."

The web is not the only environment that is likely to change as more people gain online access, according to Berners-Lee.

"It may allow us to work more peacefully globally, or maybe it won't. Maybe something horrible will happen. But we need to think about it," he said.

Berners-Lee added that the internet will go through fundamental changes with the advent of HTML 5.

"It's not just a mark-up language, it's a new computing platform. Developers will be able to write a program once and have it run across all computers," he said.