| CERN was keen on making software inventions for computing |
| CERN had a need for an information management system |
| loads of different hardware existed and information should be easy to exchange independent on what hardware it was stored |
| TCP was still not a fully reliable protocol |
| gopher started to use a commercial licence |
| Various operating systems and formats for data existed. |
| Systems for linking information in documents would not scale or operate successfully on the Internet |