The World Wide Web (WWW) is the most used element of the Internet. In practice, the web is a vast collection of interconnected documents, spanning the whole wide world. Today it's the most popular way to reach resources on the Internet. The web's basic unit is the page, such as the page you are reading now. A page on the Internet can be one, or many screens long, depending on your monitor. Within the page are links to related pages and other web sites. This system of embedding links in the text on a page is called hypertext. The hypertext transfer protocol (http) enables you to link to many sites on the net. With most graphical browsers, links are underlined and appear in a contrasting colour. The browser fetches a hypertext document from a server and displays it to you. Other methods to access other files are File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP), gopher and an ever-increasing range of other methods.

Just click to be informed

The advantage of hypertext is, that if you want more information about a particular subject mentioned, you can usually click on it and get to the referenced document instantly. But what can you find on the web? By now, the Web is becoming a mainstream publishing medium in its own right. As such everything is available somewhere on the Web, you only have to find it. Because it is cheaper to publish on the web than in paper or in other electronic media, a wide range of interests are represented. This is limited only by the fact that the population of the Internet is not yet as diverse as in the real world. Fortunately, that is changing. Access to the World Wide Web becomes more and more readily available and common.

The hypertext system originated at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) in Switzerland. Hypertext was originally intended for text links only, but as it was further developed, multimedia links were added, too. Now, you can see pictures, listen to audio, and watch video - if your computer and software can handle it. With the addition of sound and graphics and fast modems to carry these large files, the Web has become the most popular way to link to resources since its public introduction in 1991.

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An indispensable tool

The total number of Web users is difficult to estimate. One estimate is 137 million people - according to the Global Internet Statistics, updated in May 1998. For its users the Web has become a major source of information. 84% of them reported in the GVU-survey that they consider access to the Web to be indispensable. This is nearly the same percentage as those who feel email is indispensable (please visit our special email page). To find useful information takes time, especially for beginners. 40% of users spend between 5 and 15 minutes searching before they start finding what they are looking for. That a medium could become so important in such a short period of time is an awesome sign of the impact of the Web. And the sign are, that the Web's role in obtaining information and doing research will increase.

For more, in-depth information about the WWW, visit the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

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