Christ Church -- Is the WWW the same as the Internet?

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Is the WWW the same as the Internet? (more detail)

A factual answer to this question would require a definitive answer to two others. "What is the Internet?" And, "What is the WWW?" We discovered earlier, that specific answers to these questions are difficult. One thing is certain. At least in terms of their inception dates, the WWW and the Internet are not the same. The Internet dates back to the 1960's, but the World Wide Web didn't exist as we know it until the early 1990's. It was the product of research by Tim Berners-Lee which began conceptually in 1980 (1), at CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics).

Mr. Berners-Lee came along with a concept for globally hyperlinking resources so seamlessly that it would be as if they are all on your own computer. This came to be HTTP (Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol), and HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language) which together became the "glue" of the World Wide Web. HTTP is the protocol which accomplishes data transfer, and HTML is the language with which most websites are created.

HTML has evolved in a very short time into a powerful tool for publishing documents with a wide array of features. Text, graphics, and sound can be bundled with interactive games, surveys, and other services in one document. And one document can link to many others. Further, there is almost no limitation on where these documents must reside (other than being accessible on the Internet by way of a URL). This is why the WWW is truly World Wide.

And yet there are many other resources that existed before the WWW was even a gleam in Mr. Berners-Lee's eye. In answering What is the Internet?, we mentioned that the resources sharable over the Internet could include printers, application software, and many others. Most of these tasks have nothing to do with the WWW, so the web is clearly just a subset of the Internet. But this definition, while technically accurate, seems somewhat less adequate today than it was at the inception of the WWW.

With the ability to bring so many diverse resources together, HTTP and HTML became very popular in a hurry. Consequently, the development of browser software was rapid, making them easier to use and further promoting the popularity of the web. The web browsers in widest use today are much like a Swiss army knife, having the functionality of many different tools wrapped into one. Besides web browsing, most people can use their browser to read e-mail and usenet newsgroups, and as client software for almost any of the other protocols or services on the Internet.

This ease of use has enabled more people to access the Internet. Additionally, as the Internet has became more "web-centric", WWW gateways to these other services have been developed. It is now possible to access most anything people want through the web browser.

It is this notion of what "people want" versus what they can possibly get that blurs the distinction between the WWW and the Internet today. Yes, you can share an application or a printer, and do all sorts of things over the Internet. But in practice, the one resource most people are interested in sharing is documents. This fits perfectly with the power of HTTP and HTML, and with the ability of web browsers to handle so many different tasks. So any definition of the Internet which centers on the users, rather than hardware, cables, and protocols would look at the WWW as something more like a proxy for the Internet for most people. This is probably why, even though the WWW is not the same thing as the Internet, they are so often referred to synonomously.

Other Resources:

FYI on "What is the Internet?"
Hobbes' Internet Timeline