The Internet
The Internet, the Web, the World Wide Web, WWW, the Net, Mail, Hyperlinks, HTML... Makes your head hurt. What's what?
The Internet?
The Internet is the enormous interconnected network of computers around the world which you become a part of when you "log on to the Net". The Net is shorthand for the Internet.
An analogy for the Internet is the world's network of roads.
The World Wide Web?
The World Wide Web is the billions of documents in the form of websites, their web pages and other data which you access on the Internet. It's also known as the Web. Abbreviated as WWW.
It consists of site written in a special script which can be read by a browser like the one you're using right now.
If the Internet is the highway, the Web is the cars, trucks and buses. Email is the motor bikes.
These web pages are all written in HTML, a relatively easily learned scripting language. The language enables us to create web documents displaying text, graphics, animations and most importantly, Hyperlinks.
Email may be written in HTML or in plain text.
Don't worry, you don't need to learn to program, your browser and email programs do it for you. If you ever wish to create your own web pages, there are programs available which you can use to create a website without ever laying eyes on the HTML. That said, to create efficient pages and to use many of the advanced functions, a knowledge of "hand coding" is necessary.
The Information Highway
For most people, the Internet is about information. So we'll have a preliminary
look at how to find the knowledge you're after. We'll look at how to add
to, and set up, your toolbars in Internet Explorer. Most of
this
information also applies to Firefox, Opera, and other Internet browsers,
but the process is likely to be a little different.
Hyperlinks
These are links from a hotspot on a Web page which enable the user to jump to another page or to a bookmark on any page. The linked page or bookmark may well be 10,000 miles away, it could be in the office next door, on your own computer or even on the page you're looking at.
The hotspot can be text or an area on a graphic.
Hotspots and their hyperlinks are the secret of the Web's power. If you
could tap a reference word or phrase in a book and have the relevant reference
book materialise in your lap opened at the right page, you w
ould
have emulated what occurs when you activate a hyperlink by clicking it with
your mouse button.
Internet Information Reliability
The Internet is a massive resource. You'll hear a lot of criticism of its content. Anyone with easily acquired skills and a spare couple of dollars a week can publish good information on the Internet - or total hogwash.
Don't worry about it. Anyone with an ounce of common sense can sort out the good, the bad, and the totally dreadful. The vast majority of it is good. Some of it is fact, some of it is opinion, some of it is rubbish. You can make up your own mind.
When you go to websites like The New York Times, The Economist, National Geographic, or Encyclopaedia Britannica you can be fairly certain that you're getting worthwhile information. If you go to sites enabling you to obtain illegal copies of music or sites peddling pornography don't expect high standards of fidelity but do expect plenty of viruses, spyware and spam.
It's worth noting that even the best of the traditional media are not lily-white when it comes to verisimilitude. The worst? Well...
