What is World Wide Web?

World wide web (www) is a collection of information distributed at various points in the world. These points are connected with each other.

The information is basically in the form of web pages. A web page consists of files. A file can be an image, video or html file. The information can be fetched using a web browser app.

World Wide Web Inventor

WWW project was started by European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) to manage distributed data which was necessary in scientific research. The world wide web birthplace is Geneva, Switzerland.  English scientist Tim Berner-Lee was an employee at CERN. He made the first browser to use www services. Later the other institutions and general public started using the browser in 1991.

WWW Architecture

Today WWW architecture is a client-server model. The client uses a web browser app to access the services from server. The web server can be located  anywhere in the world. This location is called site.

The sites contain web pages. Each web page can also have web links of other web pages. The Fig-1 explain the working world wide web. Suppose a client needs some information available on site 1.

The client sends request to the web server via web browser app. Site 1 finds particular web page and send it to the client. The client view the web page finds some new reference web pages links.

But these web pages are available on site 2. So now the client sends the new request to site 2 by clicking or copying the new links into web browser app. The site 2 responds to the request and send the web page/pages the client needs.

Fig-1: WWW Architecture

Advantages of World Wide Web

1. We can send and receive electronic messages typically called email.
2. We can get online education. There are many institutions in the world which provide online degrees and certifications.
3. You can watch live televisions.
4. There are lot of websites providing entertainment content like movies, songs etc. You can download or can do live streaming.
5. Through many social media websites like facebook, twitter, instagram people around the globe are connected with each other.
6. Today online shopping is very common. Just visit an online shopping website, select an item and give order. The company will deliver your order at your home.
7. If you have a plan for vacations. With help of world wide web you can book hotels and flights in any part of the world.
8. Now you can do hassle free banking. No need to visit any bank branch. Do transactions using your PC or mobile device.
9. Today people use mobile phones and many other gadgets. Now you don’t have memory problem in the device to save your photos and videos. If your device has less memory you can save photos and videos of your memorable events on online memory clouds. For example Google drive, Onedrive etc