The Internet

by Dipak Chotai

 

Introduction

In terms of the actual physical parts involved, the Internet (commonly referred to as the Net) is essentially a global network of computers that are linked together by a variety of different ways. However, today, these computer networks are revolutionising the way individuals, communities and organisations communicate.

The term 'Internet' is evolving all the time and means much more then the actual computers and the connections. Some people view the Internet as a social network with people communicating and sharing information all over the world in a way that is totally new, very dynamic and interesting. Other people, however, view the Internet in terms of its commercial potential.

 

The WWW

The fastest service to grow on the Internet in the last decade has been World Wide Web (WWW). The WWW provides a way for anyone with a computer to publish information for the world to see. There are millions of web pages on all sorts of subjects (ranging from finding a long lost friend to the latest share prices) and the numbers are increasing all the time. The real beauty of these web pages is that they can hold any combination of text, graphics, photographs, sounds and video.

Overall, the Internet has become the fastest-growing communication tool ever and the statistics are staggering:

Millions of e-mails are sent and received everyday.
The number of documents, which go through the World Wide Web, rises by 1 million a day and is expected to reach 8 billion by 2002.
It is expected that some £330bn will be spent online in the next two years and some 200 million people will log onto the Net.