The internet’s influence on our lives is increasing day by day. A Newton MA-based leading market research company, Strategy Analytics, published a report detailing how the devices connected to the internet will increase to 35 billion by the end of the former half of this decade. That number is more than a hundred times higher than the total population of the United States of America. Want to hear another striking figure? Although it only started a few decades ago, 5 billion people – that is approximately two-thirds of the world’s population, are using the internet! Another measure of the increasing influence of the internet is a large number of deals internet service providers (ISPs) are coming up with. You can easily find out about Xfinity deals and the deals of other ISPs on your web browser. 

When something’s importance rises, the number of inquiries made about it also increases. The same has happened with the internet. While some wonder how the internet is transmitted from one place to another, others think about the possible uses of the internet and how it affects humanity in general. The definitions of the terms linked to the internet are also a commonplace point of discussion for another sector of the population. If you are one of the latter, this article is written just for you as we are going to be delving into the relationship between the terms “internet” and “World Wide Web.”

World Wide Web

The first term we explore is the “World Wide Web (www).” The World Wide Web is an online application that includes a large number of web pages. These web pages are often linked together so internet users often jump from one page to another. A web browser is a software that helps you access the World Wide Web. Examples of web browsers include Internet Explorer and Google Chrome. The protocol for uploading all content on the World Wide Web is the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Fun fact: the “www” and the “HTTP” we are talking about are the same ones at the start of the URL you are on now. As you know, you can find all sorts of content on WWW. The web pages can be categorized into three main types:

Surface web: is the set of web pages that are accessible by everyone. It normally does not require a login to access. The pages are indexable on search engine results pages (SERPs). According to Google’s Index, there are about fifteen billion web pages on the surface web. 

Deep web: is the set of web pages that require logins. It is not indexed on search engines. The fifteen billion web pages figure for the surface web sounded like a lot, no? Hear this out: The deep web is about 500 times larger than the surface web!

Dark web: is a part of the deep web. It consists of the most confidential web pages. The United States Defense Department created it and, initially, it was used to communicate secrets of the United States military. The dark web was allowed to grow as it was thought of as a mode of communication between peoples of oppressed countries. However, over time, it started getting used in criminal activity. The dark web started getting used by its creator (US Department of Defense)’s greatest enemies of the modern-day – terrorist organizations. 

Internet

The term “internet” originated from the word “internetwork” that alludes to the fact that the internet is a network of networks. This easily makes it the largest computing network on the globe. The World Wide Web is an application of this network, by far the largest. However, other applications of the internet do exist. 

Apps

In today’s age, we cannot disregard apps when talking about the internet. Such mobile apps include: 

• Lifestyle Apps: These apps help improve your lifestyle. These include fitness, dating, food, music, and travel apps. Some examples are Tinder and Lyft. 
• Social Media Apps: are apps that people spend the most time on. This category consists of some of the most widely used apps. The Facebook app had passed the 1 billion downloads mark a while ago. 
• Productivity Apps: These include apps that make you more productive. These include Square Register and Wunderlist. 
• Educational Apps: Apps that help you learn about different topics. The usage of these kinds of apps skyrocketed when schools closed during the coronavirus shutdowns. Examples include Khan Academy and Google Classroom.
• News Apps: These apps inform you as soon as a significant event happens. Some examples of these apps are The Economist and BuzzFeed.
• Weather Apps: As the name suggests, weather apps tell you about the weather so you can dress appropriately when leaving the home. One widely used weather app is AccuWeather. 

Conclusion

From the above, you can decipher that the World Wide Web, although massive in size, is one of the many apps that are part of the increasingly influential phenomenon called the “internet.” That is it for now. Stay tuned for more content like this, best of luck for 2022!