Introduction

The World Wide Web has become one of the most essential resources for people of all ages.
Schoolwork nowadays often requires students to do outside research. Adults often browse the
World Wide Web as well, be it for their work or just for entertainment. There are many different
types of websites out there. Some websites provide email services, various forms of
entertainment, such as sports or television shows, or assistance in finding jobs. This report will
explain what the World Wide Web is, discuss its origins, and summarize some of its
contributions in modernizing the world.

What is the World Wide Web?

The World Wide Web can be broken down into five components:
Internet
The World Wide Web is often used as a synonym for the Internet in regular, everyday
conversations. However, the two terms carry different meanings. The Internet is is a global
system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet Protocol Suite
(TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of private,
public, business, and government networks linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and
optical networking technologies. The Internet carries the inter-linked hypertext documents of the
World Wide Web (WWW).

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are references to a document that readers can directly follow. A hyperlink can point
to either a whole documents or to a specific part of documents. All hyperlinks have an anchor,
the location within a document from which the hyperlink can be followed.

Hypertext Documents

A hypertext document is text with hyperlinks. Computers and electronic devices with references
contain hypertexts to direct readers to other text that can be accessed immediately. Hypertexts
can contain more than just running text, such as tables and images. The hypertext is the defining
concept for the World Wide Web. The simple format of hypertexts on the World Wide Web
makes it easy to share information over the internet.

Web Browser

The web browser is essential for people to access the World Wide Web through the internet.
Web browsers retrieve, present, and traverse information on the World Wide Web. Uniform
Resource Identifier (URI) identifies an information resource, which can be a web page, image, or
video. Hyperlinks can be used to navigate web browsers.
Web Pages

Web pages are documents or information resources accessed through a web browser. Documents
and information resources on the World Wide Web are web pages. Computer monitors and
mobile devices can display web pages. Web pages are usually in HTML or XHTML format.
Web pages are retrieved from either local computers or web servers. Web servers use hypertext
transfer protocol (HTTP) when sending web pages.

Origins of the World Wide Web

The development of the World Wide Web can be divided into five periods:

1980-1991

The development of the World Wide Web was initiated by Tim Berners-Lee, an independent
contractor at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). In 1980, he build
ENQUIRE, a personal database of people and software models, and toyed with hypertexts. In
1984, when Berners-Lee returned to CERN, he began working on the World Wide Web to create
a large hypertext database with typed links. Finally, in 1990, he developed all the tools necessary
to create the World Wide Web:

 Hypertext transfer protocol

 Hypertext markup language
 Web browser
 HTTP server software
 Web server
 Web pages

1992-1995

Early users of the World Wide Web were primarily university based scientific departments or
laboratories. The only graphical browser available for computers was the NeXT. However, in
1992, Helsinki University of Technology released Erwise while Pei-Yuan Wei created
ViolaWWW in May.

1996-1998

During this period, publicly traded companies realized that public web presence was necessary to
business development. Free publishing and instant worldwide information, along with the
familiarity of two-way communication over the web allowed direct Web-based commerce and
group communications worldwide. Dotcoms displaying products on hypertext web pages became
prevalent on the World Wide Web.

1999-2001
From 1998-99, low interest rates helped increase startup capital amounts. Many entrepreneurs
sold ideas to investors because of the novelty of the dotcom. However, in 2001, many dotcom
startups went out of business because they failed to become profitable and burned through their
venture capital. Others, such as companies that began as online retailers and conventional
retailers, found online merchandising to be profitable. Traditional media outlets, such as
newspaper publishers and broadcasters, began using the Web as an additional channel for
content.

2002-Present

During this time, some companies succeeded in making the World Wide Web a more compelling
experience. Websites such as Google, Amazon, and eBay made the web much friendlier.
Furthermore, social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook boomed during this
era.

Uses of the World Wide Web

Anyone can access the World Wide Web with a computer connected to the Internet. Thanks to
the ease of accessibility, many people have come to rely on the World Wide Web for research,
entertainment, and news.

Science

Scientists use the World Wide Web as an environment for providing remote access to and
control of scientific instruments, they use theWeb as the medium for a grid-based architectures
that combine entail parallel distributed computation, distributed data managementand archiving,
and interactive integrated visualization tools in support of their research.3

Technological Impact 3

World Wide Web has changed expectations in regard to computing and networking, to the point
that with the rise of so-called cloud computing, the notion of the Web as a computing
environment has taken on genuine meaning, in the form of myriadservices, ranging from cloud
storage services such Google Drive toproductivity software like Microsoft’s Office 365.3

Society

With many people getting their news from social media, rather than traditional sources, the
internet has changed the way people learn about the world around them.

Perhaps the internet’s biggest achievement has been its ability to bring people together from
across the world.
Berners-Lee’s original proposal concerned itself with providing a linked information system for
people to exchange data remotely. The internet then evolved to allow companies – and then
individuals – to create their own websites and publish their thoughts, opinions and send pictures
for the rest of the world to see.

Research

Nowadays, most schools expect students to have Internet access to the World Wide Web. As
such, outside research for projects and essays often require students to utilize the World Wide
Web. For history, students can find information much quicker on web pages than going to the
library or bookstore and sifting through books. For science projects, there are countless websites
that give out free information regarding chemistry, physics, and biology. With the advent of
search engines such as Google and Bing, research on the World Wide Web is common among
students of all ages.

Entertainment

Many people also browse the World Wide Web for various forms of entertainment. On the Web,
one can stream videos from popular websites such as YouTube or Google Video, share pictures
on social networking websites such as Facebook, or read web comics such as XKCD. Sports
fanatics can access the World Wide Web at any time to get updates on games and watch game
highlights and interviews. For the curious, the World Wide Web can provide a lifetime worth of
information about pretty much anything.

News

Many major news corporations have expanded onto the World Wide Web. They all have web
sites that provide fresh news for web surfers at any time of the day. Newspapers and magazines
are quickly becoming less popular compared to the ease of accessing the Internet for instant
news.

Conclusion

Without the World Wide Web, modern society would be much different. Information would be
less accessible, there would be less entertainment for everyone, and there would be less
communication across the globe. The internet was integral in helping the world develop to the
modern society it is today. Many aspects of life are much easier now with the internet.