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:''"The Web" and "WWW" redirect here. For other uses, see [[Web]] and [[WWW (disambiguation)]]. For the world's first browser, see [[WorldWideWeb]].''
{{subpages}}
 
:''"The Web" redirects here.''  
[[Image:WWWlogo.png|thumb|120px|right|WWW's historical logo designed by [[Robert Cailliau]]]]
[[Image:WWWlogo.png|thumb|120px|right|WWW's historical logo designed by [[Robert Cailliau]]]]
The '''World Wide Web''' ("'''WWW'''" or simply the  "'''Web'''") is a global collection of documents hosted on computers and available to the public.  These documents include text files, images, videos, sound files and many other types of information.  Individual piece of informations on the Web referred to as ''resources'', and each is identified by a short, unique, global identifier called [[Uniform Resource Identifier]] (URI) so that each can be found, accessed and cross referenced in the simplest possible way.
The '''World Wide Web''' ("'''WWW'''" or simply "'''the Web'''") is a global collection of information presented in the form of documents hosted on networked [[computer|computers]] and available to the public.  The information includes text files, images, videos, sound files and many other types of information.  Born in the early 1990's, it quickly became a way to share electronic documents publicly and freely. The documents containing information are delivered to individuals over a global computer network called the [[Internet]] and using a communications protocol called [[HTTP]].  After connecting to the Internet, people can ''browse the Web'' by running a [[web browser]] on their local computer and using the web browser to ''surf'' (move around at will) through the vast array of available web documentsConnecting to the Internet also enables people to use many other services which are not necessarily considered to be part of the World Wide Web, such as [[email]], instant messaging or digital telephony.
 
The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the [[Internet]] itself, but the Web is actually only a ''collection of documents''.  While the Internet is the global ''[[network]]'' that connects a vast number of smaller networks.  The Web is accessed over the Internet, as are other services that are not part of the Web - like [[e-mail]], [[instant messaging]] and [[Voice over IP]].<ref>Halsal, p. 359, 568</ref>
 
==How the Web works ==
Web pages, and other files (such as images and videos), on the World Wide Web are stored on many different [[web server]]s located all around the worldThese web servers are all connected to the [[the Internet]].  The user accesses the Web through the Internet using a [[user agent]] program, such as a [[web browser]] (a type of user agent that [[rendering (computer graphics)|renders]] and displays the requested web page to the user).  The user can navigate to different pages on the web by either typing in the [[Uniform Resource Identifier]] (URI)<ref>For historical reasons, the [[URI]] (Uniform Resource Identifier) is often referred to as the [[URL]] (Uniform Resource Locator), however this is not always the correct term to use - see [[URL#A popular synonym for "URI"]] for more information.</ref>, also referred to as the "web address" (for example ''<nowiki>http://pilot.citizendium.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web</nowiki>'') into the web browser, or by following a [[hyperlink]] from another web pageThe user agent uses this URI to figure out which web server to ask for which resource and using which [[communication protocol]].  Unless a problem has occured, the server sends back the requested resource.
 
===Hypertext===
...


===Web Addresses===
==Web technical specifications==
{{for2|a more technical description of URI syntax|[[URI scheme#Generic syntax]]}}
The World Wide Web is implemented by software which adheres at least to the following three standards:
On the Internet, a site is commonly identified to users by a [[domain name]] (such as [http://www.google.com www.google.com]), while computers usually use [[Internet Protocol]] (IP) addresses (such as [http://209.85.135.104 209.85.135.104]).  To avoid forcing users to remember complex strings of numbers, browsers use [[Domain Name Service]] (DNS) routers, which act as phonebooks, matching the domain name with an IP address.
*the ''Uniform Resource Identifier'' (URI)<ref name="URIprotocol">{{cite web|url=http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3986.txt|title=Request for Comments: 3986, Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax|publisher=IETF Network Working Group|date=January 2005|accessdate=2007-04-02}}</ref>, which is a universal system for referencing resources (i.e., pages or files) on the Web
 
*the ''HyperText Transfer Protocol'' (HTTP)<ref name="HTTP10protocol">{{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc1945/rfc1945|title=Request for Comments: 1945, Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.0|publisher=IETF Network Working Group|date=May 1996|accessdate=2007-04-02}}</ref>, which specifies how the browser and server communicate with each other
A web address consists of several parts.  An example URI might be:<ref>{{cite web|title=RFC 2616|publisher=[[The Internet Society]]|year=1999|url=http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt|work=Uniform Resource Identifer (URI) Schemes|accessdate=2007-01-17}}</ref>
*the ''HyperText Markup Language'' (HTML)<ref name="HTML32spec">{{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html32.html|title=HTML 3.2 Reference Specification|publisher=World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)|date=14-Jan-1997|accessdate=2007-04-02}}</ref>, used to define the structure and content of hypertext documents.
<pre>http://www.w3.org:80/Consortium/activities.html#HTMLActivity</pre>
 
*'''<nowiki>http://</nowiki>''' tells the browser to use the [[HTTP]] [[protocol]].
*'''<nowiki>www.w3.org</nowiki>''' refers to the specific server.  The browser would look this up with DNS.
*'''<nowiki>:80</nowiki>''' refers to the [[port (networking) port]].  The default HTTP port is 80, and generally isn't included in an address.
*'''<nowiki>/Consortium/</nowiki>''' is the [[file path|path]] on the server.  Like on desktops, most websites are organized in a folder-based [[heirarchy]].
*'''<nowiki>activities.html</nowiki>''' refers to the specific web page.
*'''<nowiki>#HTMLActivity</nowiki>''' is called a "fragment".  It directs the browser to a section on the actual page.
 
Web addresses frequently start with "www".  The first part of the web address indicates the specific service you wish to access.  In the case of [http://news.google.com news.google.com], this means "Google.com's website, specifically the servers that handle <nowiki>'news'</nowiki>."  The reason that "www" is so common is that customarily, different services or protocols are handled under different hostnames.  For instance, public [[File transfer protocol|FTP]] was traditionally done from "ftp.name.org", while [[Gopher protocol|Gopher]] would have been handled by "gopher.name.org".  This convention predated the World Wide Web, and so organizations began calling web servers "www" servers.  Some sites still require the "www", while other sites don't.
 
===Web servers===
...
 
===Communication protocols===
...


==Origins==
==Origins==
{{main|History of the World Wide Web}}
By 1990, an entire economy had already grown around the demand for [[Internet]] access, but much functionality on the Internet was not available to non-technical users.
{{seealso|History of the Internet}}
The primary author, and the person who first implemented (or organized the implementation of) the above [[Request for Comments|RFC's]] was [[Tim Berners-Lee]] of [[CERN]], although several other people were also marginally involved.  The Internet had existed in some form for perhaps twenty years before this--and it had grown--but the means of sharing information over the Internet were neither available to large numbers of people, nor friendly enough to accommodate non-technical users.  Berners-Lee's proposals allowed information to be shared easily to a non-technical audience.  
[[Image:FirstWebServer.jpg|thumb|This NeXTcube used by [[Tim Berners-Lee|Berners-Lee]] at CERN became the first Web server.]]
The underlying ideas of the Web can be traced as far back as [[1980]], when, at [[CERN]] in [[Switzerland]], [[Tim Berners-Lee]] built [[ENQUIRE]] - a system which contained many of the same core ideas for the modern Web.<ref name="BriefHistoryOfWeb">{{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/TimBook-old/History|title=A Brief History of the Web|last=Berners-Lee|first=Tim|authorlink=Tim Berners-Lee|publisher=[[World Wide Web Consortium]]|year=1993/1994|accessdate=2007-01-19}}</ref>  In [[1990]] Berners-Lee created the first web server and also wrote the first [[web browser]], called [[WorldWideWeb]]The Web made its debut as a publically available service on [[August 6]], [[1991]].<ref>{{cite newsgroup|title=Re: Qualifiers on Hypertext links...|author=[[Tim Berners-Lee]]|date=1991-08-06|newsgroup=alt.hypertext|id=6484@cernvax.cern.ch|url = http://groups.google.com/group/alt.hypertext/msg/06dad279804cb3ba?dmode=source&hl=en| accessdate = 2007-01-19
}}</ref><ref name="BriefHistoryOfWeb"/>


The crucial underlying concept of [[hypertext]] originated with older projects from the 1960s, such as [[Ted Nelson]]'s [[Project Xanadu]] and [[Douglas Engelbart]]'s [[NLS (computer system)|oN-Line System]] (NLS).<ref>{{cite book|title=Computerization and Networking of Materials Databases, Fourht Volume|author=Sturrock, Charles P.; Begle, Edwin F.|year=1995|publisher=[[ASTM International]]|pages=154|isbn=0803120265}}</ref>
Berners-Lee devised the first web browser to fetch and display documents containing [[hyperlink]]s, which when clicked brought down additional documents over the Internet.  His version of [[hypertext]], which was an area of active research at many institutions during the 1980's, was combined with an elegant and simple protocol ([[HTTP]]) for using the existing Internet as transport, and the ideas took off very quickly. The availability of HTML documents and free web browsers accelerated the growth of the Internet even more.


On [[April 30]], [[1993]], [[CERN]] announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone.<ref>{{cite press release|title=Statement concerning CERN W3 software release into public domain|publisher=[[CERN]]|date=1993-04-30|url=http://intranet.cern.ch/Chronological/Announcements/CERNAnnouncements/2003/04-30TenYearsWWW/Welcome.html|accessdate=2007-01-19}}</ref> This came two months after the announcement that [[Gopher protocol#Decline|gopher]], the older distributed document protocol, was no longer free to use.<ref>{{cite newsgroup|senddate=1993-03-11|email=http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/vms/networking/gopher/gopher-software-licensing-policy.ancient|title=University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy|author=The Minnesota Gopher Team|accessdate=2007-01-19}}</ref>
Equally important with his technical expertise was Berners-Lee's vision that the Internet should remain a free service available to anyone.  The Web made its debut as a publicly available service on August 6, 1991.<ref name="BriefHistoryOfWeb">{{cite newsgroup|title=Re: Qualifiers on Hypertext links...|author=[[Tim Berners-Lee]]|date=1991-08-06|newsgroup=alt.hypertext|id=6484@cernvax.cern.ch|url = http://groups.google.com/group/alt.hypertext/msg/06dad279804cb3ba?dmode=source&hl=en| accessdate = 2007-01-19
}}
:A first release of the code followed [http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.next.announce/browse_thread/thread/6af5808c84a771fc/42c02b1b5992dd3 two weeks later].
</ref>  On April 30, 1993, [[CERN]] announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone.<ref>{{cite press release|title=Statement concerning CERN W3 software release into public domain|publisher=[[CERN]]|date=1993-04-30|url=http://intranet.cern.ch/Chronological/Announcements/CERNAnnouncements/2003/04-30TenYearsWWW/Welcome.html|accessdate=2007-01-19}}</ref> This came two months after the announcement that [[Gopher protocol#Decline|Gopher]], the older distributed document protocol, was no longer free to use.<ref>{{cite newsgroup|senddate=1993-03-11|email=http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/vms/networking/gopher/gopher-software-licensing-policy.ancient|title=University of Minnesota Gopher software licensing policy|author=The Minnesota Gopher Team|accessdate=2007-01-19}}</ref> In the intervening years, the World Wide Web has managed to survived in a low-cost form available to large numbers of people, but not without considerable social struggle to keep it so.  Multiple attempts have been made (and likely will be made again) to tax commerce performed through the Web, or to censor its content (in fact, some countries do attempt to censor information flow from the Web, with varied degrees of success).


The World Wide Web, however, only gained critical mass after the 1993 release of the graphical [[Mosaic web browser]] by the [[National Center for Supercomputing Applications]] (NCSA) developed by [[Marc Andreessen]]. Prior to the release of Mosaic, graphics were not commonly mixed with text in Web pages and its popularity was less than older protocols in use over the Internet, such as [[Gopher protocol]] and [[Wide area information server]]. Mosaic's graphical user interface allowed the Web to become by far the most popular Internet protocol.
The World Wide Web began an astronomical growth in popularity after the 1993 release of the graphical [[Mosaic web browser]] by the [[National Center for Supercomputing Applications]] (NCSA) developed by [[Marc Andreessen]]. Prior to the release of Mosaic, graphics were not commonly mixed with text in web pages and its popularity was less than older protocols in use over the Internet, such as [[Gopher protocol]] and [[Wide Area Information Server]]. Mosaic's graphical user interface allowed the Web to become by far the most popular Internet application.


==Web standards==
==A disruptive technology==
At its core, the Web is made up of three standards:
The fact that individuals outside [[mass media]] can easily publish on the Web has made the World Wide Web a ''disruptive''<ref>A ''disruptive technology'' is one which shakes up the status quo by invoking rapid, sometimes painful, change.</ref> influence on journalism. In order to "publish" a web page, one does not have to go through a [[publisher]] or other media institution, and potential readers could be found in all corners of the globe.  The increased opportunity to publish materials is certainly observable in the countless personal pages, as well as pages by families, small shops, etc., facilitated by the emergence of free [[web hosting]] services.  It's free to post some smaller web pages, and even larger sites are inexpensive in comparison to traditional media.
*the ''Uniform Resource Identifier'' ([[Uniform Resource Identifier|URI]]), which is a universal system for referencing resources on the Web, such as Web pages;
*the ''HyperText Transfer Protocol'' ([[HTTP]]), which specifies how the browser and server communicate with each other; and
*the ''HyperText Markup Language'' ([[HTML]]), used to define the structure and content of [[hypertext]] documents.
 
Berners-Lee now heads the [[World Wide Web Consortium]] (W3C), which develops and maintains these and other standards that enable computers on the Web to effectively store and communicate different forms of information.
 
==Content==
The Web is available to individuals outside [[mass media]]. In order to "publish" a web page, one does not have to go through a [[publisher]] or other media institution, and potential readers could be found in all corners of the globe.  The increased opportunity to publish materials is certainly observable in the countless personal pages, as well as pages by families, small shops, etc., facilitated by the emergence of free [[web hosting]] services.  It's free to post some smaller webpages, and even larger sites are inexpensive in comparison to traditional media.


Unlike [[book]]s and documents, hypertext does not have a linear order from beginning to end. It is not broken down into the hierarchy of chapters, sections, subsections, etc.  This allows readers to easily find more on a topic, move to other related topics, or skip sections they're uninterested in.
Unlike [[book]]s and documents, hypertext does not have a linear order from beginning to end. It is not broken down into the hierarchy of chapters, sections, subsections, etc.  This allows readers to easily find more on a topic, move to other related topics, or skip sections they're uninterested in.


Many different kinds of information are now available on the Web, and for those who wish to know other societies, their cultures and peoples, it has become easier. When travelling in a foreign country or a remote town, one might be able to find some information about the place on the Web, especially if the place is in one of the developed countries. Local newspapers, government publications, and other materials are easier to access, and therefore the variety of information obtainable with the same effort may be said to have increased, for the users of the Internet.  
Many different kinds of information are now available on the Web, and for those who wish to know other societies, their cultures and peoples, it has become easier. When traveling in a foreign country or a remote town, one might be able to find some information about the place on the Web, especially if the place is in one of the developed countries. Local newspapers, government publications, and other materials are easier to access, and therefore the variety of information obtainable with the same effort may be said to have increased, for the users of the Internet.  


Although some websites are available in multiple languages, many are in the local language only. Also, not all software supports all special characters, and [[Bi-directional text|RTL]] languages. These factors would challenge the notion that the World Wide Web will bring a unity to the world.
Although some websites are available in multiple languages, many are in the local language only. Also, not all software supports all special characters, and [[Bi-directional text|RTL]] languages. These factors would challenge the notion that the World Wide Web will bring a unity to the world.


===Link rot===
===Sociological implications===
[[Link rot]] is when web links become [[dead link|broken]] due to resources moving or ceasing to exist.  The ephemeral nature of the Web has prompted many efforts to archive the Web.  The [[Internet Archive]] is one of the most well-known efforts; they have been archiving the Web since 1996.
The World Wide Web has allowed global interpersonal exchange on a scale unprecedented in human history.  People separated by vast distances, or even large amounts of time, can use the Web to exchange &mdash; or even mutually develop &mdash; their most intimate and extensive thoughts, or alternately their most casual attitudes and spirits.  Emotional experiences, political ideas, cultural customs, musical idioms,  business advice, artwork, photographs, literature, can all be shared and disseminated digitally with less individual investment than ever before in human history.  Although the existence and use of the Web relies upon material technology, which comes with its own disadvantages, its information does not use physical resources in the way that [[library|libraries]] or the [[printing press]] have.  Therefore, propagation of information via the Web (via the Internet, in turn) is not constrained by movement of physical volumes, or by manual or material copying of information.  And by virtue of being [[digital]], the information of the Web can be searched more easily and efficiently than any library or physical volume, and vastly more quickly than a person could retrieve information about the world by way of physical travel or by way of [[mail]], [[telephone]], [[telegraphy|telegraph]], or any other communicative medium.
 
==Sociological implications==
The Web, as it stands today, has allowed global interpersonal exchange on a scale unprecedented in human history.  People separated by vast distances, or even large amounts of time, can use the Web to exchange &mdash; or even mutually develop &mdash; their most intimate and extensive thoughts, or alternately their most casual attitudes and spirits.  Emotional experiences, political ideas, cultural customs, musical idioms,  business advice, artwork, photographs, literature, can all be shared and disseminated digitally with less individual investment than ever before in human history.  Although the existence and use of the Web relies upon material technology, which comes with its own disadvantages, its information does not use physical resources in the way that [[library|libraries]] or the [[printing press]] have.  Therefore, propagation of information via the Web (via the Internet, in turn) is not constrained by movement of physical volumes, or by manual or material copying of information.  And by virtue of being [[digital]], the information of the Web can be searched more easily and efficiently than any library or physical volume, and vastly more quickly than a person could retrieve information about the world by way of physical travel or by way of [[mail]], [[telephone]], [[telegraphy|telegraph]], or any other communicative medium.


The Web is the most far-reaching and extensive medium of personal exchange to appear on [[Earth]].  It has probably allowed many of its users to interact with many more groups of people, dispersed around the planet in time and space, than is possible when limited by physical contact or even when limited by every other existing medium of communication combined.
The Web is the most far-reaching and extensive medium of personal exchange to appear on [[Earth]].  It has probably allowed many of its users to interact with many more groups of people, dispersed around the planet in time and space, than is possible when limited by physical contact or even when limited by every other existing medium of communication combined.
Line 73: Line 40:
Because the Web is global in scale, some have suggested that it will nurture mutual understanding on a global scale.  By definition or by necessity, the Web has such a massive potential for social exchange, it has the potential to nurture empathy and symbiosis, but it also has the potential to incite belligerence on a global scale, or even to empower [[demagogy|demagogues]] and repressive regimes in ways that were historically impossible to achieve.
Because the Web is global in scale, some have suggested that it will nurture mutual understanding on a global scale.  By definition or by necessity, the Web has such a massive potential for social exchange, it has the potential to nurture empathy and symbiosis, but it also has the potential to incite belligerence on a global scale, or even to empower [[demagogy|demagogues]] and repressive regimes in ways that were historically impossible to achieve.


===Web 2.0===
==Web 2.0==
Since around 2000, all major web browsers have moved quickly to support additional standards, including [[CSS]], [[XHTML]] (and its Document Object Model, or DOM), and [[JavaScript]].  Use of these standards in devising web pages has led to a better usability experience for users, in which parts of web pages are updated by background programs that talk to the web server without the user having to browse further to an additional web page.  These new technologies are often called [[Ajax]] as a comglomerate.


==Semantic Web==
Further advances in website design include user-generated content, social networking aspects such as user ratings or page customization, so-called "mashups" which allow data to be visualized more easily, and new ways of generating revenue such as use of a small-face, discreet, text-only advertizing column a la Google.  Such trends are frequently referred to under the all-encompassing term "Web 2.0", meaning the second version of how web pages can be created for a richer user experience.  For developers, creating "Web 2.0" pages is more complex, and the technology is still costly enough in terms of human effort that many websites cannot yet afford the implementation overhead.  But tools support for Web 2.0 design approaches continues to evolve rapidly as of 2008, and this has resulted in higher expectations for web page friendliness among users.


Websites which heavily employ so-called "Web 2.0" technology are also sometimes referred to as Rich Internet Applications, or simply RIA's.


==See also==
==References==
*[[Deep web]]
*[[First image on the Web]]
*[[Search engine]]
*[[Streaming media]]
*[[Web directory]]
 
==Notes==
<references/>
<references/>
==References==
<div class="references-small">
*{{cite paper | author=Berners-Lee, Tim; Bray, Tim; Connolly, Dan; Cotton, Paul; Fielding, Roy; Jeckle, Mario; Lilley, Chris; Mendelsohn, Noah; Orchard, David; Walsh, Norman; Williams, Stuart | title=Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One | publisher=W3C | date=December 15, 2004 | version=Version 20041215 | url=http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/}}
*{{cite book | last=Halsall | first = Fred | title=Computer Networking and the Internet | edition = fifth edition | year = 2005 | origyear = 1985 | isbn = 0-321-26358-8 | publisher = Pearson Education }}
*{{cite paper | author=Fielding, R.; Gettys, J.; Mogul, J.; Frystyk, H.; Masinter, L.; Leach, P.; Berners-Lee, T. | title=Hypertext Transfer Protocol — HTTP/1.1 | publisher=Information Sciences Institute | date=June 1999 | version=Request For Comments 2616 | url=ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2616.txt}}
*{{cite web | author=Polo, Luciano  | title=World Wide Web Technology Architecture: A Conceptual Analysis | publisher= | year=2003 | work=New Devices | url=http://newdevices.com/publicaciones/www/ | accessdate=July 31 | accessyear=2005 }}
</div>
==External links==
*[http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/ Open Directory — Computers: Internet: Web Design and Development]
*[http://vlib.iue.it/history/internet/ WWW-Virtual Library: History of the Internet & W3]
*[http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/ Early archive of the first web site]
*[http://www.mit.edu/people/mkgray/net/ Internet Statistics: Growth and Usage of the Web and the Internet]
*[http://hixie.ch/commentary/web/history The History of the Web]
*[http://www.webology.ir/ Webology]
*[http://www.vlib.us/websitetools.html The World Wide Web Virtual Library: Web Site Tools] from the [[World Wide Web Virtual Library]]
*[http://www.livinginternet.com/w/w.htm A comprehensive history with people, concepts and many interesting quotations]
*[http://www.articlehorizon.com Article Directory]Some articles about World  Wide Web
{{step|[[ENQUIRE]]|}}
[[Category:World Wide Web|World Wide Web]]
[[Category:English inventions]]
[[Category:Internet history]]
[[Category:Computers Workgroup]]
[[Category:CZ_Live]]

Latest revision as of 08:48, 22 April 2024

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"The Web" redirects here.
WWW's historical logo designed by Robert Cailliau

The World Wide Web ("WWW" or simply "the Web") is a global collection of information presented in the form of documents hosted on networked computers and available to the public. The information includes text files, images, videos, sound files and many other types of information. Born in the early 1990's, it quickly became a way to share electronic documents publicly and freely. The documents containing information are delivered to individuals over a global computer network called the Internet and using a communications protocol called HTTP. After connecting to the Internet, people can browse the Web by running a web browser on their local computer and using the web browser to surf (move around at will) through the vast array of available web documents. Connecting to the Internet also enables people to use many other services which are not necessarily considered to be part of the World Wide Web, such as email, instant messaging or digital telephony.

Web technical specifications

The World Wide Web is implemented by software which adheres at least to the following three standards:

  • the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)[1], which is a universal system for referencing resources (i.e., pages or files) on the Web
  • the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP)[2], which specifies how the browser and server communicate with each other
  • the HyperText Markup Language (HTML)[3], used to define the structure and content of hypertext documents.

Origins

By 1990, an entire economy had already grown around the demand for Internet access, but much functionality on the Internet was not available to non-technical users. The primary author, and the person who first implemented (or organized the implementation of) the above RFC's was Tim Berners-Lee of CERN, although several other people were also marginally involved. The Internet had existed in some form for perhaps twenty years before this--and it had grown--but the means of sharing information over the Internet were neither available to large numbers of people, nor friendly enough to accommodate non-technical users. Berners-Lee's proposals allowed information to be shared easily to a non-technical audience.

Berners-Lee devised the first web browser to fetch and display documents containing hyperlinks, which when clicked brought down additional documents over the Internet. His version of hypertext, which was an area of active research at many institutions during the 1980's, was combined with an elegant and simple protocol (HTTP) for using the existing Internet as transport, and the ideas took off very quickly. The availability of HTML documents and free web browsers accelerated the growth of the Internet even more.

Equally important with his technical expertise was Berners-Lee's vision that the Internet should remain a free service available to anyone. The Web made its debut as a publicly available service on August 6, 1991.[4] On April 30, 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone.[5] This came two months after the announcement that Gopher, the older distributed document protocol, was no longer free to use.[6] In the intervening years, the World Wide Web has managed to survived in a low-cost form available to large numbers of people, but not without considerable social struggle to keep it so. Multiple attempts have been made (and likely will be made again) to tax commerce performed through the Web, or to censor its content (in fact, some countries do attempt to censor information flow from the Web, with varied degrees of success).

The World Wide Web began an astronomical growth in popularity after the 1993 release of the graphical Mosaic web browser by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) developed by Marc Andreessen. Prior to the release of Mosaic, graphics were not commonly mixed with text in web pages and its popularity was less than older protocols in use over the Internet, such as Gopher protocol and Wide Area Information Server. Mosaic's graphical user interface allowed the Web to become by far the most popular Internet application.

A disruptive technology

The fact that individuals outside mass media can easily publish on the Web has made the World Wide Web a disruptive[7] influence on journalism. In order to "publish" a web page, one does not have to go through a publisher or other media institution, and potential readers could be found in all corners of the globe. The increased opportunity to publish materials is certainly observable in the countless personal pages, as well as pages by families, small shops, etc., facilitated by the emergence of free web hosting services. It's free to post some smaller web pages, and even larger sites are inexpensive in comparison to traditional media.

Unlike books and documents, hypertext does not have a linear order from beginning to end. It is not broken down into the hierarchy of chapters, sections, subsections, etc. This allows readers to easily find more on a topic, move to other related topics, or skip sections they're uninterested in.

Many different kinds of information are now available on the Web, and for those who wish to know other societies, their cultures and peoples, it has become easier. When traveling in a foreign country or a remote town, one might be able to find some information about the place on the Web, especially if the place is in one of the developed countries. Local newspapers, government publications, and other materials are easier to access, and therefore the variety of information obtainable with the same effort may be said to have increased, for the users of the Internet.

Although some websites are available in multiple languages, many are in the local language only. Also, not all software supports all special characters, and RTL languages. These factors would challenge the notion that the World Wide Web will bring a unity to the world.

Sociological implications

The World Wide Web has allowed global interpersonal exchange on a scale unprecedented in human history. People separated by vast distances, or even large amounts of time, can use the Web to exchange — or even mutually develop — their most intimate and extensive thoughts, or alternately their most casual attitudes and spirits. Emotional experiences, political ideas, cultural customs, musical idioms, business advice, artwork, photographs, literature, can all be shared and disseminated digitally with less individual investment than ever before in human history. Although the existence and use of the Web relies upon material technology, which comes with its own disadvantages, its information does not use physical resources in the way that libraries or the printing press have. Therefore, propagation of information via the Web (via the Internet, in turn) is not constrained by movement of physical volumes, or by manual or material copying of information. And by virtue of being digital, the information of the Web can be searched more easily and efficiently than any library or physical volume, and vastly more quickly than a person could retrieve information about the world by way of physical travel or by way of mail, telephone, telegraph, or any other communicative medium.

The Web is the most far-reaching and extensive medium of personal exchange to appear on Earth. It has probably allowed many of its users to interact with many more groups of people, dispersed around the planet in time and space, than is possible when limited by physical contact or even when limited by every other existing medium of communication combined.

Because the Web is global in scale, some have suggested that it will nurture mutual understanding on a global scale. By definition or by necessity, the Web has such a massive potential for social exchange, it has the potential to nurture empathy and symbiosis, but it also has the potential to incite belligerence on a global scale, or even to empower demagogues and repressive regimes in ways that were historically impossible to achieve.

Web 2.0

Since around 2000, all major web browsers have moved quickly to support additional standards, including CSS, XHTML (and its Document Object Model, or DOM), and JavaScript. Use of these standards in devising web pages has led to a better usability experience for users, in which parts of web pages are updated by background programs that talk to the web server without the user having to browse further to an additional web page. These new technologies are often called Ajax as a comglomerate.

Further advances in website design include user-generated content, social networking aspects such as user ratings or page customization, so-called "mashups" which allow data to be visualized more easily, and new ways of generating revenue such as use of a small-face, discreet, text-only advertizing column a la Google. Such trends are frequently referred to under the all-encompassing term "Web 2.0", meaning the second version of how web pages can be created for a richer user experience. For developers, creating "Web 2.0" pages is more complex, and the technology is still costly enough in terms of human effort that many websites cannot yet afford the implementation overhead. But tools support for Web 2.0 design approaches continues to evolve rapidly as of 2008, and this has resulted in higher expectations for web page friendliness among users.

Websites which heavily employ so-called "Web 2.0" technology are also sometimes referred to as Rich Internet Applications, or simply RIA's.

References

  1. Request for Comments: 3986, Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax. IETF Network Working Group (January 2005). Retrieved on 2007-04-02.
  2. Request for Comments: 1945, Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.0. IETF Network Working Group (May 1996). Retrieved on 2007-04-02.
  3. HTML 3.2 Reference Specification. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) (14-Jan-1997). Retrieved on 2007-04-02.
  4. Template:Cite newsgroup
    A first release of the code followed two weeks later.
  5. CERN (1993-04-30). Statement concerning CERN W3 software release into public domain. Press release. Retrieved on 2007-01-19.
  6. Template:Cite newsgroup
  7. A disruptive technology is one which shakes up the status quo by invoking rapid, sometimes painful, change.