Vint Cerf, TCP/IP co-inventor, retires from Google at 83

Vint Cerf, one of the people behind the protocols that made the internet possible, is retiring at the age of 83. He will leave his role as Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist, a position he has held since 2005. Alongside Bob Kahn, he created the TCP/IP protocols during the 1970s.

Most people may not know the names Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, despite using their invention every day. They developed the Internet protocol suite, or TCP/IP, which enables machines to communicate with one another. Now aged 87, Bob Kahn is president and CEO of the non-profit Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). Vint Cerf, 83, has served as Google’s Chief Internet Evangelist since 2005, but this “father of the internet” will shortly retire.

According to TechCrunch, the news was revealed at the Laude Institute’s Open Frontier conference, where Vint Cerf was appearing. “Vint has worked at Google for more than 20 years and is retiring in a week. He therefore deserves to be congratulated on his fine career,” said Dave Patterson, a professor at UC Berkeley, during the event.

Internet and the web are often confused

Internet and the web are frequently treated as though they were the same thing, but they are distinct. “Internet” is the network used by the web, which was created later. TCP/IP, developed by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn, was published in the 1970s and forms the foundation of the internet.

The web, meanwhile, was created by Briton Tim Berners-Lee in the late 1990s. It is described as a “universal interconnected information system”, yet it relies on the internet and TCP/IP.

Tim Berners-Lee, for his part, remains active. He is co-founder and chief technology officer of Inrupt, a company developing a solution intended to give internet users back control over their personal data.