What Is The World Wide Web?

Date First Published: 14th February 2022

Topic: Computer Networking

Subtopic: Network Services

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 1/10

Learn more about what the World Wide Web is in this article.

The World Wide Web, also known as WWW, or simply the web is the service that allows users to visit webpages in their browser. The World Wide Web contains billions of webpages and over 1.5 billion websites. However, only a fraction of these websites are active and the majority of them are unused. The World Wide Web is a form of connectivity that makes use of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and allows users to browse webpages and perform online tasks. The World Wide Web makes it possible for people to shop and bank online, share files, read articles, watch videos, look at images, play online games, and perform other online tasks.

Difference Between The Internet and The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is often mistaken for a synonym of the internet when it is not. The World Wide Web (WWW) is the service that is provided by the internet and the pages that a user sees when they are online or browsing the internet. In other words, the World Wide Web is a form of connectivity that uses HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and allows users to browse webpages and perform online tasks. Without the internet, it would be impossible to access the World Wide Web. The internet is the largest WAN of connected computers and interconnected networks. It can also be known as a network of connected computers that the internet works on and what emails and files travel across.

The internet is used for accessing the World Wide Web and the World Wide Web is being accessed now, since this article is being read. There are lots of other services provided by the internet, so the internet and the World Wide Web are not the same things. There are three key terms that are related to the World Wide Web, which include:

• URL (Uniform Resource Locator) - This is a synonym for the web address that appears in the address bar of a web browser. It is where a certain webpage is located.
• HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) - The protocol that is used for devices communicating over the World Wide Web and transmitting data between web browsers and servers.
• HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) - The programming language of the World Wide Web. This article is a HTML file as the extension '.html' appears at the top of the URL. HTML code is not directly displayed in a web browser, but can be viewed on computers by right-clicking and selecting 'View Source'.

Changes To The Nature Of The World Wide Web

There are three key versions of the World Wide Web that are helpful for understanding how it has evolved over a period of time.

• Web 1.0 - This was the original version of the World Wide Web. At that time period, data was read-only. It is used to refer to the first and earliest stage of development on the World Wide Web where websites were simple and static and users were unable to alter any elements of the webpage.
• Web 2.0 - This is the second version of the World Wide Web that enables user-generated content, such as reviews, forums, uploaded content, such as images. Social networking sites, such as Facebook are examples of Web 2.0.
• Web 3.0 - This is a newer version of Web 2.0 that enables more advanced interaction between devices and users and uses artificial intelligence in order to understand its user and personalise everything. For example, if someone is looking on a search engine for a file storage service where they can store all of their documents into a 'drive' and access them from the internet by logging into their account, it is necessary for the user to look through a lot of search results and compare different options, which will take a long period of time. Web 3.0 makes personalised and accurate suggestions in an intelligent way based on the settings and preferences of the user.

History

The World Wide Web was originally designed in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee, a computer scientist, in order to fulfil the request for automated information-sharing between scientists in universities as well as organisations around the world. It first began at CERN, a global scientific organisation in Geneva, Switzerland when they created a protocol called HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol).

By the time it was December 1990, Tim Berners-Lee and his work team had developed all of the required tools for the World Wide Web to function properly, including HTML, HTTP, the first web browser, called 'WorldWideWeb', the first web server, which was later known as CERN HTTPd, and the first website, called info.cern.ch, which contained the first webpages with a description of the World Wide Web. It was first introduced to the public on 6th August 1991 when Tim Berners-Lee briefly summarised the World Wide Web project, but it wasn't available to everyone until 23rd August 1991. The earliest version of the World Wide Web used Web 1.0, which were static sites with read-only data as well as no user-generated content.

On 30 April 1993, CERN put the World Wide Web software in the public domain. By 1993-1994, the World Wide Web began to enter everyday use, but the total number of websites was still tiny compared to the number of websites that exist now. However, a number of significant websites were already active, such as Yahoo, which was released in January 1994. The Yahoo search engine that was founded in 1995. In 1995, ecommerce became more popular with the launch of eBay, a popular website used for selling and buying items online. Tim-Berners Lee founded the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) in September 1994 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the intention of improving the quality of the World Wide Web.

In the mid-2000s, a lot of new ideas for sharing and exchanging content was quickly accepted on the World Wide Web and the new version for the exchange of information, mostly user-generated was called Web 2.0, which was founded in 1999 and became more commonly used in 2004. During this time period, social networking websites, such as Facebook and Twitter were founded and become more common over the years. User-submitted content became much more popular when a video-sharing website, called YouTube was founded in 2005.

Should The Term 'World Wide Web' Be Capitalised?

The term 'World Wide Web' is a proper noun and in accordance with the proper naming conventions, it should be capitalised.

Is 'WWW' Required In A URL?

'WWW' before the domain name of the URL is actually unnecessary and redundant and can be removed since every webpage on the internet is always accessed via the World Wide Web. However, some websites still have 'WWW' before the domain name, such as 'www.example.com' and require people to type 'WWW' before the domain name, but if a user forgets, it will automatically redirect them to the domain name with 'WWW'. A permanent redirect is used, known as a 301 redirect.