very web address that you enter in your web browser begins with ‘WWW’, which is an acronym for ‘World Wide Web’. You are bound to be curious about what is the world wide web exactly. What is the difference between World Wide Web and the Internet or are they synonyms? All these questions will be answered in the following lines.
What is the World Wide Web and Where was it Developed?
To define it in simplest terms, the world wide web is an interconnected network of documents, which are connected to each other via ‘hyperlinks’. This large repository of documents is made accessible through the medium of the Internet, which is the largest connected network of computers in the world. While the WWW (world wide web) is purely a service, Internet technology based on the TCP/IP model is the platform, which provides access to this large library of knowledge.
How does the world wide web work? The access to world wide web is made possible via web browsers, that work according to the Internet protocols to access the pages stored on various computer servers around the world. The essential point to remember when making a world wide web vs Internet comparison, is that while the former is a hyperlinked and continuous network of documents, the other is a connected network of computers.
The whole access system of the world wide web is based on client server architecture with the web browser as the software which renders the pages according to the source code written in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language).
If you are curious about who invented the world wide web, then know that it was Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in association with Robert Cailliau, and they did it while working at CERN in 1990. Since then, the world wide web has grown exponentially to become the greatest database of human knowledge. One of the most memorable dates in world wide web history is April 30, 1993 when CERN made the WWW open for access, to the whole world.
What is the World Wide Web Consortium?
Although the history of the world wide web begins around 1990, it took years for the Internet and the world wide web to become household names. By the end of the 1990s, the Internet actually took off and created a new platform for the exchange of knowledge and communication. As the Internet spread and world wide web found many takers, there was a need to maintain a uniformity in mark up language standards (like HTML) and other technologies related with the world wide web.
The world wide web consortium was founded in 1994, with this very purpose. Headed by Tim Berners-Lee himself, the consortium is the international authority, that finalizes all the software standards related to the world wide web and is dedicated to further development of the web.
What is the World Wide Web Used For?
I am sure, you already know the answer to that question. The reading of this web page is made possible by your browser accessing and rendering this page, which is stored on Buzzle.com’s web server. The world wide web is used for making the world’s knowledge stores accessible to everyone who has access on the Internet. Today the world wide web provides a medium of communication through email, VoIP and social networking sites. Today, the world wide web has evolved as an interactive medium for communication and has truly globalized the world.
How Big is the World Wide Web?
The size of the world wide web can be measured in terms of the number of web pages that become a part of it every second. It is truly not possible to provide an exact estimate of what is the size of the world wide web as it’s continuously growing, as new content in the form of tens of thousands of new pages is added to it every second. Some of the latest reports indicate that there are more than 11 billion pages on the web! For the latest statistics, you will have to refer to the publications of the world wide web consortium.
The key feature of the world wide web is that it grows organically through hyperlinks added to new pages that are added every day. So now that you understand what is the world wide web, you know that the world wide web and the Internet are two related but different things. While the former is a service, the latter is the technology that makes running of that service possible. It is the most gigantic library and repository of human knowledge and culture ever created!