What is the World Wide Web?

The World Wide Web is one of the protocols that lets you link to many sites on the Internet. The basic unit is the page, such as the page you are now reading. A page can be one or many screens as it displays on your monitor.

Within the page are links to related pages and other web sites. This system of embedding links in the text on a page is called hypertext. The links are distinctive, and vary depending on your browser. With most graphical browsers, links are underlined and appear in a contrasting color.

Text browsers may number the links or show them in bold text to contrast them or in reverse colors when selected. You can select a link in a text browser either by typing the number of the link or by moving the up and down arrow keys to select the link. Once selected, either press Enter or the right arrow to connect to the link.

This page includes several links in contrasting colors or type. These are hypertext links to other pages, and you can switch to the linked page by clicking on or selecting the link. Try it.

You will also see buttons and pictures used for links. With a graphical browser, there will often be a blue or magenta border around the graphic to show you it is a link. If you are using a text-only browser, you won't see the picture, but you will usually see an [image] tag or an alternate name.

The Web was invented by Tim Berners-Lee and others at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland. It was originally for text links only, but as it was further developed, multimedia links were added, too. Now, you can see pictures, listen to audio links, and see video links, if your computer and software are set up for them. With the addition of sound and graphics and fast modems to carry the large sound and graphics files, the Web soon became the most popular way of linking to resources on the Internet, replacing gopher, which was invented at the University of Minnesota.

For more background about the web, see Walt's Internet History.

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The Internet

What is the Internet?

The Internet is a vast network that connects many independent networks spanning over 170 countries in the World. It links computers of many different types, sizes, and operating systems, and, of course, the many people of those countries that use the Internet to communicate.
The one thing all these different computers have in common is the use of the Internet Protocol, abbreviated as IP, which allows computers of different types to communicate with each other. You will often see reference to the longer abbreviation, TCP/IP, which stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Your own computer uses TCP/IP software to enable it to link to this service.

What can I do on the Internet?

The Internet Protocol makes it possible for you to communicate in various ways, find things that interest you, and exchange information and files. The most common things you can do are:

• Get information on almost any subject by searching the web. It takes some skill to search efficiently, and since anyone can publish just about anything, there is lots of misinformation on the web, too. You need to develop some skill in evaluating the accuracy and reliability of the information you find.
• Send and receive email or chat or exchange messages with people all over the world. Almost as fast as the telephone, there is never a busy signal, and you never play phone tag.
  
• Join discussion groups about a common subject with message boards, Newsgroups and email discussion lists.
  
• Get or exchange software and files with the File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
  
• Explore the World Wide Web, which can use all of the above, and adds easy links to other resources and adds multimedia--graphics, sound, and video capabilities.
• Publish your own material on the web in blogs, message boards, or your own web pages.

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