The World Wide Web (WWW)

The World Wide Web is one of the most popular of all the Internet utilities. The chief reason for this is that it provides a Graphical User Interface (or pictures). Other Internet services are mostly text only.

The Web was first developed in 1990 at the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Cern, Switzerland as a way for scientists to pass pictorial and text based information around rapidly.

The World Wide Web's main feature was hypertext - a way of associating articles with other related articles by using keywords and highlighted text. These links or associations could be connected to other machines at the same site or elsewhere around the globe. Links could be made to other pages, which would contain further links.

The hypertext links are arranged in documents (web pages) and viewed via a software program called a browser, or web browser. Additionally, web browsers such as Netscape and Internet Explorer also allow you to access the other types of Internet services.

The explosion of the Internet's popularity was predominantly due to the World Wide Web. It has a multitude of uses, including advertising, entertainment and research. The World Wide Web is the type of Internet connection which will be used for this introductory course due to its ease of use, versatility and extremely interesting content.

Contents: World Wide Web

Skill Check: World Wide Web