Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web (aka. the Web) interchangeably, but in fact the two terms are not synonymous. The Internet and the Web are two separate but related things. The Internet is a massive network of networks, a networking infrastructure. It connects millions of computers together globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate with any other computer as long as they are both connected to the Internet. Information that travels over the Internet does so via a variety of languages known as protocols. The World Wide Web, or simply Web, is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. It is an information-sharing model that is built on top of the Internet. The Web uses the HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to transmit data. Web services, which use HTTP to allow applications to communicate in order to exchange business logic, use the the Web to share information. The Web also utilizes browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, to access Web documents called Web pages that are linked to each other via hyperlinks. Web documents also contain graphics, sounds, text and video. The Web is just one of the ways that information can be disseminated over the Internet. The Internet, not the Web, is also used for e-mail, which relies on SMTP, Usenet news groups, instant messaging and FTP. So the Web is just a portion of the Internet, albeit a large portion, but the two terms are not synonymous and should not be confused.

Related Terms Internet World Wide Web hyperlink protocol Related Articles on Webopedia: Did You Know... Who Owns the Internet? Did You Know... How Do Web servers Work? Did You Know... The History of the @ Sign?

 

DID YOU KNOW... In March 1972 Ray Tomlinson wrote the first basic e-mail program. In 1976 Queen Elizabeth II sent an e-mail. Read more in Webopedia's Brief Timeline of the Internet.

Did You Know... Why E-Mails Bounce
In computer jargon, a bounced e-mail is one that never arrives in the recipient's inbox and is sent back, or bounced back, to the sender with an error message that indicates to the sender that the e-mail was never successfully transmitted. But what happens when someone sends an e-mail out into cyberspace, and why do e-mails sometimes bounce back?

Did You Know... Who Owns the Internet?
No one actually owns the Internet, and no single person or organization controls the Internet in its entirety. More of a concept than an actual tangible entity, the Internet relies on a physical infrastructure that connects networks to other networks.

Quick Reference: Brief Timeline of the Internet
When we talk about the Internet, we talk about the World Wide Web from the past four or five years. But, its history goes back a lot further; all the way back to the 1950s and 60s.

Quick Reference: Countries and Their Domain Extensions
Not all domains end in .com, .org, or .edu. Different countries use different suffixes, usually two letters. If you encounter a Web site with a unique two-letter domain extension, look here for its country equivalent.

Quick Reference: Who's Who in Internet and Computer Technology
The people listed in this section have made major contributions to the field of computer and Internet technology. As the technology leaps forward at a rapid pace, the list will continue to grow as new innovators make their mark on the industry.