Canadian who predicted the internet honoured with Google doodle

A Canadian who is credited with predicting the internet — about 26 years before it existed in its current form — got a shout-out with a Google doodle Friday, on what would have been his 106th birthday.

Herbert Marshall McLuhan, a philosopher and communication theorist, was born in Edmonton on July 21, 1911.

WATCH: Tech expert talks about the evolution of the internet and how it’s used in crimes

0:57 Tech expert talks about the evolution of the internet and how it’s used in crimes

The University of Toronto professor became recognized across the world for his studies on mass media during the 1960s. According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, in 1964, McLuhan he described his prediction about the internet and virtual reality as a “discarnate experience.”

Two years before that, he touched on the topic in his book, The Gutenberg Galaxy, calling it “the next medium.”

“A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organisation, retrieve the individual’s encyclopedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "A computer as a research and communication instrument could enhance retrieval, obsolesce mass library organisation, retrieve the individual's encyclopedic function and flip into a private line to speedily tailored data of a saleable kind."

In the same book, McLuhan coined the term “global village,” explaining that technology would bring together people from all different interests and backgrounds.

READ MORE: Trump asked Ottawa to drop duties on e-commerce under NAFTA. Canadians should cheer, say experts

McLuhan is also famous for creating another common phrase — “the medium is the message” — meaning the way a message is delivered is as important as the message itself.

Google’s animation celebrates the academic’s unique way of thinking, the company said in a statement.

“He saw it through the lens of four distinct eras: the acoustic age, the literary age, the print age, and the electronic age,” it explained.

“Decades later, we honour the man whose prophetic vision of the ‘computer as a research and communication instrument’ has undeniably become a reality.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Decades later, we honour the man whose prophetic vision of the 'computer as a research and communication instrument' has undeniably become a reality."

While the internet is an invention that slowly evolved, it took a more recognizable form in 1990, when computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web.