The Computer Dictionary

The Web
World Wide Web
WWW

World Wide Web, or WWW, is older terms for what is today more commonly called the Web. It is a informal system of Internet servers worldwide that co-operate in the passive transfer of Web documents, called webpages. The Web utilizes browsers, such as FireFox, Internet Explorer or Netscape, to access webpages.

Webpages are formatted using the HTML language, which is a computer language that supports graphics, audio, and video files. But most importantly, HTML supports links to other pages, both within the same website and to pages at other websites. This enables the ability to jump from one document to another simply by clicking a link.

The Web was invented at CERN, Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire (European Laboratory for Particle Physics), in Geneva, Switzerland. Hypertext transport protocol (HTTP), which made the Web possible, was created by Dr. Tim Berners-Lee, a researcher at CERN.

The Web is related to but is not synonymous with the Internet. The two should not be confused. Basicly, the Web is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet, while the Internet is a massive computer network infrastructure.

To read more, see the Internet.

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