The web is based on technical standards, such as HTML, that first emerged without being backed by standardization procedures or established institutions. Many private companies such as Netscape and Microsoft tried to take control over it, but eventually an open and transparent arena, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), prevailed. In the early 1990s, HTML was used for both structuring the documents and design purposes. However, by the end of the 1990s, the clarification of HTML’s role and the standardization of procedures by the W3C enabled HTML to become a common reference while W3C was becoming the authority on the matter. 

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