Final answer:
The web is the correct answer, as it is the distributed network where content providers and users communicate through HTML, playing a crucial role in the internet's expansive growth since the 1990s.
Step-by-step explanation:
The distributed network where content providers and users communicate through HTML is known as the web. The web is an essential component of the internet, which began as a network of networks created by the Department of Defense researchers and expanded beyond just government and academic use. In the 1990s, during the advent of service providers like America Online (AOL), telecommunications and software companies began offering online services that act as gateways to the internet. These services utilized broadband connections to manage the rapidly increasing information flow, which led to the establishment of the first websites, search engines, and commercial internet platforms. At its core, the web is a collection of interlinked hypertext pages hosting data, images, video, and sound, all accessible via the internet.