Internet :
|
|
The Internet is a global system of
interconnected
computer networks that use the standard
Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users
worldwide. It is a
network of networks that consists of millions
of private and public, academic, business, and government networks of local to
global scope that are linked by a broad array of electronic and optical
networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of
information resources and services, most
notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the
World Wide Web (WWW)
and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.
Most traditional communications media, such as telephone and television
services, are reshaped or redefined using the technologies of the Internet,
giving rise to services such as Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IPTV.
Newspaper publishing has been reshaped into
Web sites,
blogging, and web feeds.
The Internet has enabled or accelerated the creation of new forms of human
interactions through instant messaging, Internet forums, and
social networking
sites.
The origins of the Internet reach back to the 1960s when the United States
funded research projects of its military agencies to build robust,
fault-tolerant and distributed
computer networks. This research and a period of
civilian funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation
spawned worldwide participation in the development of new networking
technologies and led to the commercialization of an international network in the
mid 1990s, and resulted in the following popularization of countless
applications in virtually every aspect of modern human life. As of 2009, an
estimated quarter of Earth's population uses the services of the Internet.
The Internet has no centralized governance in either technological
implementation or policies for access and usage; each constituent network sets
its own standards. Only the overreaching definitions of the two principal name
spaces in the Internet, the Internet Protocol address space and the
Domain Name System, are directed by a maintainer
organization, the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The technical underpinning and
standardization of the core protocols (IPv4 and IPv6) is an activity of the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a non-profit organization of
loosely-affiliated international participants that anyone may associate with by
contributing technical expertise.
|
|
World Wide Web :
|
|
The World Wide Web, abbreviated as WWW and commonly
known as
The Web, is a system of interlinked hypertext documents contained on
the Internet. With a
web browser, one can view
web pages that may contain text,
images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them by using
hyperlinks. Using concepts from earlier
hypertext systems, British engineer and
computer scientist Sir
Tim Berners Lee, now the
Director of the World Wide Web
Consortium, wrote a proposal in March 1989 for what would eventually become the
World Wide Web. He was later joined by Belgian computer scientist Robert Cailliau
while both were working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1990, they
proposed using "HyperText [...] to link and access information of various kinds
as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will", and released that web
in December.
"The World-Wide Web
(W3)
was developed to be a pool of human knowledge, which
would allow collaborators in remote sites to share their ideas and all aspects
of a common project." If two projects are independently created, rather than
have a central figure make the changes, the two bodies of information could form
into one cohesive piece of work.
The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in every-day speech without
much distinction. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and
the same. The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks.
In contrast, the Web is one of the services that runs
on the Internet. It is a
collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks
and
URLs. In short, the Web is an application running on the Internet. Viewing a
web page on the World Wide Web normally begins either by typing the URL of the
page into a web browser, or by following a hyperlink to that page or resource.
The web browser then initiates a series of communication messages, behind the
scenes, in order to fetch and display it.
First, the server-name portion of the URL is resolved into an IP address using
the global, distributed
Internet database known as the domain name system, or
DNS. This IP address is necessary to contact the Web server. The browser then
requests the resource by sending an
HTTP request to the Web server at that
particular address. In the case of a typical web page, the HTML text of the page
is requested first and parsed immediately by the web browser, which then makes
additional requests for images and any other files that form parts of the page.
Statistics measuring a website's popularity are usually based either on the
number of 'page views' or associated server 'hits' (file requests) that take
place.
While receiving these files from the web server, browsers may progressively
render the page onto the screen as specified by its HTML,
CSS, and other web
languages. Any images and other resources are incorporated to produce the
on-screen web page that the user sees. Most web pages will themselves contain
hyperlinks to other related pages and perhaps to
downloads, source documents,
definitions and other web resources. Such a collection of useful, related
resources, interconnected via hypertext links, is what was dubbed a "web" of
information. Making it available on the Internet created what Tim Berners-Lee
first called the WorldWideWeb (in its original CamelCase, which was subsequently
discarded) in November 1990.
|
|
|
What's New?
Internet and World Wide Web :
|
|
-
CNET.com
CNET.com is CNET's online portal, providing access to CNET's reviews, news,
downloads, price comparisons and CNET TV as well as
web search powered by search.com. CNET.com is
divided into seven major sections, all of which can be
accessed from the home or "Today on CNET" page.
-
The Information Technology (IT) Portal
Information technology (IT) or information and communication technology (ICT) is
a broad subject which deals with technology and other aspects of managing and
processing information, especially in large organizations. Particularly, IT
deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert,
store, protect, process, transmit, and retrieve information. Over the past 20
years, its prevalence has dramatically increased so that it is now a part of
nearly every aspect of daily life.
-
Internet.com
Internet.com is the leading source for news, features and hands-on advice for
developers and IT professionals. The Internet.com Network is comprised of some
of the best known and highly acclaimed sites in the technology publishing
business. Our more than 200 journalists, analysts and editors produce award
winning and actionable information around the clock and from around the world.
Our sites are organized into five channels to enable marketers to reach targeted
audience segments easily and efficiently.
-
Internet Archive
The
Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission:
"universal access to all knowledge." It offers permanent storage and access to
collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images,
and books.
-
The Internet Portal
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. A computer
that connects to the Internet can access information from a vast number of
servers and other computers. An Internet connection also allows the computer to
send information onto the network; that information may be saved and ultimately
accessed by a variety of servers and other computers. Much of the widely
accessible information on the Internet consists of the interlinked hypertext
documents and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW). Web users typically
send and receive information using a web browser; other software for interacting
with computer networks includes specialized programs for electronic mail, online
chat, file transfer and file sharing. Information is moved around the Internet
by packet switching using the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP). It
is a "network of networks" that consists of millions of private and public,
academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope that are
linked by copper wires, fiber-optic cables, wireless connections, and other
technologies.
-
Open Directory Project
The
Open Directory Project (ODP), also known as
Dmoz (from directory.mozilla.org,
its original domain name), is a multilingual open content directory of
World Wide Web links. It is owned by Netscape,
but it is constructed and maintained by
a community of volunteer editors. ODP uses a hierarchical ontology scheme for
organizing site listings. Listings on a similar topic are grouped into
categories, which can then include smaller categories.
-
World Wide Web Consortium
The
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards
organization for the World Wide Web (abbreviated WWW or W3). Founded and headed
by
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations which
maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development
of standards for the World Wide Web. As of 8 September 2009, the World Wide Web
Consortium (W3C) has 356 members.
W3C also engages in education and outreach,
develops software and serves as an open forum for discussion
about the Web.
|
|
|
|
See Also :
|
