The World Wide Web — which celebrates its 25th anniversary on Wednesday — has undoubtedly ushered in massive innovation in its quarter-life existence but what's most surprised inventor Tim Berners-Lee is users' fascination with kittens.
Berners-Lee participated in a Q&A (also known as an AMA or "ask me anything") on popular message board site Reddit this afternoon and when asked what major reason people use the Internet for that he wasn't expecting, his answer was simply: "kittens."

But his answers weren't all jovial. He provided fascinating insight into the state of the online world, noting he is both "concerned and excited about its future." He also shared his perspective on Edward Snowden, saying "the whistleblower may be all that saves society."
"Because he had no other alternative, engaged as a journalist/with a journalist to be careful of how what was released and provided an important net overall benefit to the world, I think he should be protected, and we should have ways of protecting people like him," he wrote. "Because we can try to design perfect systems of government, and they will never be perfect, and when they fail, then the whistleblower may be all that saves society."
Berners-Lee also teased a few alternative names he considered other than the World Wide Web, including Mine of Information, The Information Mine and The Mesh.
"None had quite the right ring," he said.
He also commented on the increased surveillance and said he's in favor of agencies using it to fight crime.
"I think that some monitoring of the net by government agencies is going to be needed to fight crime," Berners-Lee wrote. "We need to invent a new system of checks and balances with unprecedented power to be able to investigate and hold the agencies which do it accountable to the public."
He also disputed the rumor that the "404" error message came to be as a result of there not being a room 404 in his office building at the time. His response? "No. Nonsense."
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