Well, I've been researching this topic for quite a while (I had to do a school report on the Internet), and I've managed to compile an editorial on the World Wide Web. As well, I managed to find a brief history of this global interaction a few decades ago; and the future of the Internet's capabilities will be very rewarding in years to come. So enjoy, feedback is accepted (as always!) Oh, and I'm not very sure if this belongs in the right board, but please movie it if necessary. Thanks.
Introduction: The World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (commonly known as "WWW") is a computer-based network of information resources that a user can move through by using links from one document to another. The information on the World Wide Web is spread over computers all over the world. The World Wide Web is often referred to simply as "the Web."
The Web has become a very popular resource since it first became possible to view images and other multimedia on the Internet, a worldwide network of computers, in 1993. The Web offers a place where companies, institutions, and individuals can display information about their products, research, or their lives. Anyone with access to a computer connected to the Web can view most of that information. A small percentage of information on the Web is only accessible to subscribers or other authorized users. The Web has become a forum for many groups and a marketplace for many companies. Museums, libraries, government agencies, and schools make the Web a valuable learning and research tool by posting data and research. The Web also carries information in a wide spectrum of formats. Users can read text, view pictures, listen to sounds, and even explore interactive virtual environments on the Web.
Like all computer networks, the Web connects two types of computers - clients and servers - using a standard set of rules for communication between the computers. The server computers store the information resources that make up the Web, and Web users use client computers to access the resources. The Internet also has other methods of linking computers, such as Telnet, File Transfer Protocol, and Gopher, but the Web has quickly become the most widely used part of the Internet. It differs from the other parts of the Internet in the rules that computers use to talk to each other and in the accessibility of information other than text. It is much more difficult to view pictures or other multimedia files with methods other than the Web.
Enabling client computers to display Web pages with pictures and other media was made possible by the introduction of a type of software called a browser. Each Web document contains coded information about what is on the page, how the page should look, and to which other sites the document links. The browser on the client's computer reads this information and uses it to display the page on the client's screen. Almost every Web page or Web document includes links, called hyperlinks, to other Web sites.
How the Web Operates
When users want to access the Web, they use the Web browser on their client computer to connect to a Web server. Client computers connect to the Web in one of two ways. Client computers with dedicated access to the Web connect directly to the Web through a router (a piece of computer hardware that determines the best way to connect client and server computers) or by being part of a larger network with a direct connection to the Web. Client computers with dial-up access to the Web connect to the Web through a modem, a hardware device that translates information from the computer into signals that can travel over telephone lines. Some modems send signals over cable television lines or special high-capacity telephone lines such as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Loop (ASDL) lines. The client computer and the Web server use a set of rules for passing information back and forth. The Web browser knows another set of rules with which it can open and display information that reaches the client computer.
The address of a Web page is called a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). A URL is a compound code that tells the client's browser three things: the rules the client should use to reach the site, the Internet address that uniquely designates the server, and the location within the server's file system for a given item. An example of a URL is
http://www.bluegoop.net/forums. The first part of the URL, "http://," shows that the site is on the World Wide Web. Most browsers are also capable of retrieving files with formats from other parts of the Internet, such as gopher and FTP. Other Internet formats use different codes in the first part of their URLs-for example, gopher uses
gopher:// and FTP uses
ftp://. The next part of the URL, "bluegoop.net/forums," gives the name, or unique Internet address, of the server on which the Web site is stored.
The codes that tell the browser on the client computer how to display a Web document correspond to a set of rules called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). Each Web document is written as plain text, and the instructions that tell the client computer how to present the document are contained within the document itself, encoded using special symbols called HTML tags. The browser knows how to interpret the HTML tags, so the document appears on the user's screen as the document designer intended. In addition to HTML, some types of objects on the Web use their own coding. Applets, for example, are mini-computer programs that are written in computer programming languages such as Visual Basic and Java.
Who Uses the Web?
Even though the World Wide Web is only a part of the Internet, surveys have shown that over 75 percent of Internet use is on the Web. That percentage is likely to grow in the future.
One of the most remarkable aspects of the World Wide Web is its users. They are a cross section of society. Users include students who need to find materials for a term paper, physicians who need to find out about the latest medical research, and college applicants investigating campuses or even filling out application and financial aid forms online. Other users include investors who can look up the trading history of a company's stock and evaluate data on various commodities and mutual funds. All of this information is readily available on the Web. Users can often find graphs of a company's financial information that show the information in several different ways.
Travelers investigating a possible trip can take virtual tours, check on airline schedules and fares, and even book a flight on the Web. Many destinations-including parks, cities, resorts, and hotels-have their own Web sites with guides and local maps. Major delivery companies also have Web sites from which customers can track their shipments, finding out where their packages are or when they were delivered.
Government agencies have Web sites where they post regulations, procedures, newsletters, and tax forms. Many elected officials-including almost all members of the United States Congress-have Web sites, where they express their views, list their achievements, and invite input from the voters. The Web also contains directories of e-mail and postal mail addresses and phone numbers.
Many merchants and publishers now do business on the Web. Web users can shop at Web sites of major bookstores, clothing sellers, and other retailers. Many major newspapers have special Web editions that are issued even more frequently than daily. The major broadcast networks use the Web to provide supplementary materials for radio and television shows, especially documentaries. Electronic journals in almost every scholarly field are now on the Web. Most museums now offer the Web user a virtual tour of their exhibits and holdings. These businesses and institutions usually use their Web sites to complement the non-Web parts of the operations. Some receive extra revenues from selling advertising space on their Web sites. Some businesses, especially publishers, provide limited information to ordinary Web users, but offer much more to users who buy a subscription.
Editorial: What (Exactly) Is The World Wide Web?
Last year I composed an 8 page research paper on the Internet for school. All the research came from my previous knowledge 
