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If you hang around computer users enough, you may hear one of them refer to
the Internet and the World Wide Web interchangeably. Although the Internet and
the WWW work together, they certainly aren't one in the same, and I'll tell
you why.
The Internet is a framework. It's a monstrous, world wide network of networks.
It is a means to facilitate communication from user to user throughout the world.
In reality, the Internet itself is nothing more than a dumb behemoth. To communicate,
the Internet needs something with brains to power those facilities. Think of
the Internet as a bridge across a river. The bridge itself doesn't drive cars
across it. People do. The same concept applies to the web. The Internet itself
can't power communication; rather, protocols do.
The World Wide Web, or WWW, provides a mechanism to view information sent over
the Internet and works on top of the Internet. It was developed by a guy named
Tim Berners-Lee at CERN Labs. The World Wide Web uses the Hypertext Transfer
Protocol, or HTTP, as its set of rules for bcommunication, and utilizes display
applications like web browsers to make information readable. Information intended
for web browsers use a scripting language that web browsers can read. That scripting
language is known as Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML.
For example, you are reading this web page through a web browser. The web browser
functions within the World Wide Web to interpret its HTML, and the World Wide
Web uses the Internet as a means to successfully communicate.
The World Wide Web is not the only communication mechanism that uses the Internet.
Email, for example, does. Email also uses a set of rules to communicate. Its
set of rules is called the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP. SMTP accesses
the Internet and places email messages on it for transferring. Mail messages
are received by a user's computer and displayed through an email application,
like Microsoft Outlook, or even a web page, like Hotmail or Yahoo.
Usenet, FTP and instant messengers (like AOL Instant Messenger, or ICQ) also
use the Internet for communication. They all use a set of rules, called protocols,
to govern the information transfer. The Internet handles hoards of information
each and every day, ranging from WWW information to email traffic, to instant
messages and Usenet sessions.
You should now know the difference between the Internet and the World Wide
Web. The Internet is nothing more than a large network that facilitates communication,
and the World Wide Web is a mechanism for information display and organization.
You may correct those misguided Internet users now, politely and intelligently.
About the Author:
Steve |
