What is the Internet and how does it differ from the world wide web?

The terms “Internet” and the “World Wide Web” (or just “Web”) are often used interchangeably. However, while they are related, they are actually two completely separate things.

The Internet is a network of networks that links together computers across the world . As long as any two computers are connected to the Internet, they can communicate with each other using a variety of computer languages known as protocols . The Internet does not contain information but is the transport vehicle for information stored in documents or files on computers . It’s therefore incorrect to say that something is found on the Internet; information is found using the Internet, by finding it on a computer that is connected to the Internet.

The Web, invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, is an information-sharing model that is built on top of the Internet. It is a service contained within the Internet and is one of the protocols by which information is thereby provided. When you log on to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, for instance, you’re viewing documents on the Web.

The Web is one of many Internet applications, and probably the one with which most people are familiar. Another common application used for communication on the Internet is e-mail. As the Web increased in size, search engines developed to track pages on it and to assist in finding information, the first suchbeing Lycos, which appeared on the scene in 1993. Google is now the largest search engine, tracking over eight billion pages.