Happy Internaut Day! On August 23, 1991, users accessed the World Wide Web for the first time, paving the way for the internet that we turn to for the latest and greatest cat gifs.
What's the difference between the World Wide Web and the internet?
To start, the internet is bigger. Much bigger. It's actually a network of networks, connecting millions of computers around the globe. Any of these computers can communicate with one another, so long as each machine is connected to the internet.
While people often use the terms interchangeably, the World Wide Web is actually a system we use to tap into the internet. It's a method used to access all those cat gifs. If the internet is the infrastructure, the World Wide Web is a service that runs on top of that infrastructure.
The World Wide Web uses Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), a language used to transmit data, to access information that lives on different networks. If you're reading this blog post on a browser—Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer—you're accessing the internet via the World Wide Web.
What's the definition of the internet?
We love this question. We answer it fully in this interview with Tim Stronge ⬇️
As you'll hear from Tim, the internet is a network of computers.
Computers can only understand two things: on and off. Everything that we do on the internet is in binary—a series of 1s and 0s representing on and off—which gives instructions to your computer to do all the amazing things it does. This means that the very bottom of the internet is a system for sending those 1s and 0s over wires (or spectrum in some cases). Whatever you do on the internet—email, videos, chats—the information is translated into that binary by your devices and then transmitted via packets.
What's the definition of the World Wide Web?
The World Wide Web is, as far as official definitions go, an information system that enables content sharing over the internet.
It's a collection of interconnected public webpages, documents, images, videos, and other resources.
What's an Internaut?
Internaut is a term that combines "internet" and "astronaut" to describe people who are skilled at navigating the digital world. Internaut Day is observed annually on August 23 to celebrate the invention of the World Wide Web.
