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INTERNET TUTORIAL |
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INTRODUCTION
What is the Internet? ||
What is the Web? || How to
Connect
Surfing for the First Time || Troubleshooting || Other
Features
Links || Glossary ||
The 'Net Around the World
INTERNET QUIZ
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INTERNET TUTORIAL |
|||
INTRODUCTION
What is the Internet? ||
What is the Web? || How to
Connect
Surfing for the First Time || Troubleshooting || Other
Features
Links || Glossary ||
The 'Net Around the World
INTERNET QUIZ
Of all the worthwhile features of the Internet, none has captured the public's imagination and contributed to the Net's growth so much as the World Wide Web. A method of posting and accessing interactive multimedia information, the "Web" is a true "information superhighway," allowing users the world over to access a wealth of information quickly and easily.
The first rumblings toward this concept began immediately after World War II, when scientists were desperately seeking ways to organize and share their accumulated wartime research. In 1945, noted scientist Vannevar Bush published an essay in Atlantic Monthly titled "As We May Think," which proposed a massive information index that people from all over the world could access and search. Although Bush's system was mechanical (and was never developed), his essay had a profound impact on many who would one day help design the Internet and the World Wide Web. For this reason, Vannevar Bush is often hailed as the theoretical father of the Web.
Given this background, the actual Web was originally conceived as a way for
physicists to share their research data. In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee led a team at
Switzerland's European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) in developing the
initial World Wide Web standards. Key among these was the use of hypertext,
or "hot" portions of an online document
that, when selected, take the user to a related, or "linked,"
document. For instance, if a user was reading a Web document about dinosaurs
and selected the hypertext word "Tyrannosaurus," he or she would go
directly to a document dealing specifically with that species of dinosaur.
Try it! Click on Tyrannosaurus and see what happens...
Computerized hypertext was pioneered by researcher Ted Nelson in a system called Xanadu, which he created in the early 1960s. Although Xanadu was never fully realized, many of the Web's developers—including Berners-Lee—have cited it as an influence on their work.
The next great innovation for the Web came in 1992, when programmers from
the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of
Illinois developed the Mosaic browser,
a software application that displayed not only the
text of a Web document (or page), but embedded graphic elements as
well. By bringing multimedia to the Web, Mosaic vested it with enormous
potential.
Today, several Web browsers are available for IBM, Macintosh and UNIX-based computers, and most of the major online services include Web browsers in their standard software packages. And the Web is growing at a phenomenal rate. According to Interactive Week magazine, the number of Web servers (computers that store Web pages) surged from fewer than 3,500 in April 1994 to more than 40,000 in July 1995. And in February 1997, the computing firm Network Wizards determined the number of commercial domains alone to be well over 700,000.
We have already cited hypertext and multimedia as two of the outstanding features of the World Wide Web. Among the Web's other distinct advantages are:
For the individual or organization wishing to distribute information, the Web makes "publishing" easy and cost-effective. Putting information on the Web is quite inexpensive compared with traditional publishing, yet puts that information before a potential audience of millions. And unlike a printed publication, a Web document can be revised and updated at any time.
The World Wide Web brings you all of the advantages of the Internet—and more! Among the things that the Web allows you to do are:
A Web site may consist of a single Web page, or may comprise multiple, interconnected pages. The following is a view of how the CenterSpan home page appears through a popular browser:
CenterSpan is among more elaborate Web sites that contain forms, where you can submit information in an easy-to-follow format, and bulletin board features that allow you to post information for others to see.
Go to...
INTRODUCTION
What is the Internet? ||
What is the Web? || How to
Connect
Surfing for the First Time || Troubleshooting || Other
Features
Links || Glossary ||
The 'Net Around the World
INTERNET QUIZ
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