Top Questions
What is the Internet?
The Internet is a vast network that connects computers all over the world. Through the Internet, people can share information and communicate from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Who invented the Internet?
The Internet consists of technologies developed by different individuals and organizations. Important figures include Robert W. Taylor, who led the development of the ARPANET (an early prototype of the Internet), and Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn, who developed the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) technologies.
How does the Internet work?
The Internet works through a series of networks that connect devices around the world through telephone lines. Users are provided access to the Internet by Internet service providers. The widespread use of mobile broadband and Wi-Fi in the 21st century has allowed this connection to be wireless.
Is the Internet dangerous?
The advent of the Internet has brought into existence new forms of exploitation, such as spam e-mail and malware, and harmful social behaviour, such as cyberbullying and doxxing. Many companies collect extensive information from users, which some deem a violation of privacy.
What is the Dark Web?
The Dark Web refers to a series of Web sites that require special decryption and configuration tools to access. It is most commonly used for purposes that require strict anonymity, including illegal sales (e.g., of weapons and drugs), political dissent in countries with heavy censorship, and whistleblowing.
Who controls the Internet?
While the Internet is theoretically decentralized and thus controlled by no single entity, many argue that tech companies such as Amazon, Facebook, and Google represent a small concentration of organizations that have unprecedented influence over the information and money on the Internet. In some countries, certain parts of the Internet are blocked via censorship.
Is the Internet “making us stupid”?
Whether the Internet is "making us stupid" is widely debated. Some argue the Internet is reprogramming our brains for the worse, as seen by diminishing IQ scores, and that new technologies and platforms like the Internet are harming attention spams, the ability to concentrate, and perform simple tasks. Others argue that virtually all new technologies throughout history have been initially feared, that the Internet gives voice to diverse populations and equal access to information for the benefit of social advancement, and that changing how the brain works and how we access and process information is not necessarily bad. For more on the debate about whether the Internet is "making us stupid," visit ProCon.org.
Is cancel culture (or “callout culture”) good for society?
Whether cancel culture is good for society is widely debated. Some argue it allows the public and marginalized people to seek accountability in their leaders, gives a voice to disenfranchised or less powerful people, and is simply a new form of boycott. Others see cancel culture as a dangerous form of bullying, a suppression of free speech, and a form of intolerance that harms democratic societies by excluding and ostracizing anyone with contrary views. For more on the cancel culture debate, visit ProCon.org.
Summary
Read a brief summary of this topic
Internet, a system architecture that has revolutionized communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect. Sometimes referred to as a “network of networks,” the Internet emerged in the United States in the 1970s but did not become visible to the general public until the early 1990s. By 2020, approximately 4.5 billion people, or more than half of the world’s population, were estimated to have access to the Internet.
The Internet provides a capability so powerful and general that it can be used for almost any purpose that depends on information, and it is accessible by every individual who connects to one of its constituent networks. It supports human communication via social media, electronic mail (e-mail), “chat rooms,” newsgroups, and audio and video transmission and allows people to work collaboratively at many different locations. It supports access to digital information by many applications, including the World Wide Web. The Internet has proved to be a spawning ground for a large and growing number of “e-businesses” (including subsidiaries of traditional “brick-and-mortar” companies) that carry out most of their sales and services over the Internet. (See electronic commerce.)
Origin and development
Early networks
The first computer networks were dedicated special-purpose systems such as SABRE (an airline reservation system) and AUTODIN I (a defense command-and-control system), both designed and implemented in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By the early 1960s computer manufacturers had begun to use semiconductor technology in commercial products, and both conventional batch-processing and time-sharing systems were in place in many large, technologically advanced companies. Time-sharing systems allowed a computer’s resources to be shared in rapid succession with multiple users, cycling through the queue of users so quickly that the computer appeared dedicated to each user’s tasks despite the existence of many others accessing the system “simultaneously.” This led to the notion of sharing computer resources (called host computers or simply hosts) over an entire network. Host-to-host interactions were envisioned, along with access to specialized resources (such as supercomputers and mass storage systems) and interactive access by remote users to the computational powers of time-sharing systems located elsewhere. These ideas were first realized in ARPANET, which established the first host-to-host network connection on October 29, 1969. It was created by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense. ARPANET was one of the first general-purpose computer networks. It connected time-sharing computers at government-supported research sites, principally universities in the United States, and it soon became a critical piece of infrastructure for the computer science research community in the United States. Tools and applications—such as the simple mail transfer protocol (SMTP, commonly referred to as e-mail), for sending short messages, and the file transfer protocol (FTP), for longer transmissions—quickly emerged. In order to achieve cost-effective interactive communications between computers, which typically communicate in short bursts of data, ARPANET employed the new technology of packet switching. Packet switching takes large messages (or chunks of computer data) and breaks them into smaller, manageable pieces (known as packets) that can travel independently over any available circuit to the target destination, where the pieces are reassembled. Thus, unlike traditional voice communications, packet switching does not require a single dedicated circuit between each pair of users.
Commercial packet networks were introduced in the 1970s, but these were designed principally to provide efficient access to remote computers by dedicated terminals. Briefly, they replaced long-distance modem connections by less-expensive “virtual” circuits over packet networks. In the United States, Telenet and Tymnet were two such packet networks. Neither supported host-to-host communications; in the 1970s this was still the province of the research networks, and it would remain so for many years.
Britannica Quiz
What Do You Actually Know About the Internet?
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; formerly ARPA) supported initiatives for ground-based and satellite-based packet networks. The ground-based packet radio system provided mobile access to computing resources, while the packet satellite network connected the United States with several European countries and enabled connections with widely dispersed and remote regions. With the introduction of packet radio, connecting a mobile terminal to a computer network became feasible. However, time-sharing systems were then still too large, unwieldy, and costly to be mobile or even to exist outside a climate-controlled computing environment. A strong motivation thus existed to connect the packet radio network to ARPANET in order to allow mobile users with simple terminals to access the time-sharing systems for which they had authorization. Similarly, the packet satellite network was used by DARPA to link the United States with satellite terminals serving the United Kingdom, Norway, Germany, and Italy. These terminals, however, had to be connected to other networks in European countries in order to reach the end users. Thus arose the need to connect the packet satellite net, as well as the packet radio net, with other networks.
FAQs
What is Internet description? ›
The Internet, sometimes called simply "the Net," is a worldwide system of computer networks -- a network of networks in which users at any one computer can, if they have permission, get information from any other computer (and sometimes talk directly to users at other computers).
What is Internet history used for? ›Internet history is a term for a tool or resource in a Web browser that keeps track of sites and pages that a user visits. Through tabulating URLs, Internet history facilitates a quick reference or lookup of previously visited pages.
What is Internet definition and history? ›Internet, also known as the World Wide Web (www), is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use a protocol called the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to link to billions of devices all around the world.
What is Internet definition and its uses? ›What is the Internet? The Internet is a vast network that connects computers all over the world. Through the Internet, people can share information and communicate from anywhere with an Internet connection.
What are the 5 uses of Internet? ›- Email.
- Sharing of files.
- Watch movies and songs.
- Research purpose.
- News.
- Accessibility. An Internet is a global service and accessible to all. ...
- Easy to Use. ...
- Interaction with Other Media. ...
- Low Cost. ...
- Extension of Existing IT Technology. ...
- Flexibility of Communication. ...
- Security.
Internet history, also called browsing history or web history, is a feature found in all Internet browsers. It is a record of the addresses of the websites you have recently visited and data associated with those websites. The saved data helps make the website load faster if you revisit it.
Who can see internet history? ›Despite the privacy precautions you take, there is someone who can see everything you do online: your Internet Service Provider (ISP). When it comes to online privacy, there are a lot of steps you can take to clean up your browsing history and prevent sites from tracking you.
When was Internet first used? ›January 1, 1983 is considered the official birthday of the Internet. Prior to this, the various computer networks did not have a standard way to communicate with each other. A new communications protocol was established called Transfer Control Protocol/Internetwork Protocol (TCP/IP).
What's the definition history? ›: a story of real or imaginary events. : a written record of important events and their causes. : a branch of knowledge that records and explains past events. : events that form the topics of a history.
What is Internet and types? ›
Internet is a network of networks and has different types of internet. It consists of public, private, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a comprehensive arrangement of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies.
What are the 3 Use of Internet? ›The Internet has many important applications. Of the various services available via the Internet, the three most important are e-mail, web browsing, and peer-to-peer services . E-mail, also known as electronic mail, is the most widely used and successful of Internet applications.
What are the 9 uses of the Internet? ›- Online Booking & Orders. ...
- Cashless Transactions. ...
- Education. ...
- Online Banking & Trading. ...
- Research. ...
- Electronic Mail. ...
- Job Search. ...
- Social Networking.
Topping the list of the most popular uses of the internet is “finding information,” with almost six in ten (58.4 percent) people worldwide listing it as a reason they go online. This is followed by staying in touch with friends and family at 54.2 percent.
What are 10 uses of Internet? ›- Electronic mail. At least 85% of the inhabitants of cyberspace send and receive e-mail. ...
- Research.
- Downloading files.
- Discussion groups. ...
- Interactive games. ...
- Education and self-improvement. ...
- Friendship and dating. ...
- Electronic newspapers and magazines.
- Information, knowledge, and learning. ...
- Connectivity, communication, and sharing. ...
- Anonymity and making people equal. ...
- Address, mapping, and contact information. ...
- Banking, bills, and shopping. ...
- Selling and making money. ...
- Collaboration, work from home, and access to a global workforce.
The Internet is a handy platform to upload, download, and share data. The Internet also provides a good source of entertainment. With the internet, we can connect with people all over the world. The Internet is also an excellent place to do business, for it helps you reach global users.
What are the main types of internet? ›Internet Connection Types: WiFi, Broadband, DSL, Cable.
What words describe internet? ›- Internet.
- WWW.
- World Wide Web.
- communications.
- computer network.
- data bank.
- data network.
- electronic highway.
Introduction. The Pew Internet Project has looked at how people use the internet in four major ways: to communicate, to gather information, to transact personal and professional business, and to entertain themselves.
How do I view Internet history? ›
- At the top right, tap More. History. If your address bar is at the bottom, swipe up on the address bar. Tap History .
- To visit a site, tap the entry. To open the site in a new tab, touch and hold the entry. At the top right, tap More. Open in new tab. To copy the site, touch and hold the entry.
Step 1: Open the browser and click on the three dots and then History. Step 2: Clicking on this will open up your browsing history, with the most recent pages you have visited first. You can scroll down the list. Step 3: From this list you can click on any page displayed to revisit it.
Where is Internet history stored? ›Your browsing history will be stored in your browser's "History" settings. You can delete specific websites or all browsing history within a certain timeframe. Deleting browsing history from one item that is synchronized with another (e.g., an iPad and a Mac) won't usually remove the history from the other item.
What is the introduction of internet? ›Internet is a global communication system that links together thousands of individual networks. It allows exchange of information between two or more computers on a network. Thus internet helps in transfer of messages through mail, chat, video & audio conference, etc.
What is internet today? ›The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices.
Can someone know my internet history? ›Yes. Internet providers can see everything you do on the internet. The only way to defend against this is by encrypting your data. Solutions like VPNs, HTTPS proxies, and the Tor browser can help you protect your data.
Is Internet history private? ›Your internet service provider, or ISP, is your gateway to the internet. This means they automatically receive a lot of information about you and your online life. As long as your online activity isn't encrypted, your ISP will see it all. Even incognito mode doesn't keep you safe.
Can the internet show your history? ›Your search engine records all search requests and your IP address. Your browser also keeps a record unless you switch on Incognito mode or erase your history. Your ISP also tracks your activity. Finally, cybercriminals and surveillance agencies can install spyware on your device to see your internet activity.
Who used the Internet first? ›When the first packet-switching network was developed, Leonard Kleinrock was the first person to use it to send a message. He used a computer at UCLA to send a message to a computer at Stanford. Kleinrock tried to type 'login' but the system crashed after the letters 'L' and 'O' had appeared on the Stanford monitor.
Who introduced Internet? ›Computer scientists Vinton Cerf and Bob Kahn are credited with inventing the Internet communication protocols we use today and the system referred to as the Internet.
Who made the first Internet? ›
The invention of the internet cannot be credited to one person. Instead, it was the work of many engineers, programmers and scientists, according to History.com. While the modern internet was developed from ARPANET's adoption communications model developed by Kahn and Vinton, this is different from the World Wide Web.
What is the importance of history? ›Studying history helps us understand how events in the past made things the way they are today. With lessons from the past, we not only learn about ourselves and how we came to be, but also develop the ability to avoid mistakes and create better paths for our societies.
How many types of history are there? ›History is defined as the study of past events. There are 6 types of history, and they are: Political history.
Why is it called history? ›The short version is that the term history has evolved from an ancient Greek verb that means “to know,” says the Oxford English Dictionary's Philip Durkin. The Greek word historia originally meant inquiry, the act of seeking knowledge, as well as the knowledge that results from inquiry.
Why is it called internet? ›The Internet is called a network of networks because it is a global network of computers that are linked together by cables and telephone lines making communication possible among them. It can be defined as a global network over a million smaller heterogeneous computer networks. Suggest Corrections. Q.
What is internet only definition? ›INTERNET, E-COMMERCE (also Internet-only) us. used to describe an activity, service, etc. that is only available on the internet: Its Internet-only presence means it can operate with fewer than 20 employees.
What are the parts of internet? ›There are three components to the Internet: e-mail; Usenet newsgroups; and the World-Wide Web.
Which answer best describes the Internet? ›Explanation. The Internet is the global network that uses TCP/IP.
What words describe the Internet? ›- Internet.
- WWW.
- World Wide Web.
- communications.
- computer network.
- data bank.
- data network.
- electronic highway.
INTERNET, E-COMMERCE (also Internet-only) us. used to describe an activity, service, etc. that is only available on the internet: Its Internet-only presence means it can operate with fewer than 20 employees.
Who described the Internet? ›
In 1974, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn used the term internet as a shorthand for internetwork in RFC 675, and later RFCs repeated this use. Cerf and Kahn credit Louis Pouzin with important influences on TCP/IP design.
What are the benefits of Internet? ›- Connectivity, communication, and sharing. ...
- Information, knowledge, and learning. ...
- Address, mapping, and contact information. ...
- Selling and making money. ...
- Banking, bills, and shopping. ...
- Donations and funding. ...
- Entertainment.
Advantages of the Internet:
As anyone can access the computer this made people by stripping away geographical barriers and sharing information instantaneously. Communication Forum: The speed of communication becomes faster which is obtained through the web. Families and friends can confine touch easily.
- Beautiful.
- Ugly.
- Smart.
- Clever.
- Gorgeous.
- Friendly.
- Happy.
- Sad.
Paragraph 1 - 100 Words
The Internet is a system that connects computers worldwide. It is very useful for sharing information. We live in an era of the internet. The Internet is used in schools, offices and public places. We could at once be connected to anyone over the internet.
Internet Connection Types: WiFi, Broadband, DSL, Cable.
How Internet was first called? ›This eventually led to the formation of the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), the network that ultimately evolved into what we now know as the Internet.
How Internet is created? ›The internet began as ARPANET, an academic research network that was funded by the military's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA, now DARPA). The project was led by Bob Taylor, an ARPA administrator, and the network was built by the consulting firm of Bolt, Beranek and Newman. It began operations in 1969.
Who is called Father of Internet? ›Widely known as a “Father of the Internet,” Cerf is the co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols and the architecture of the Internet. In December 1997, President Bill Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet.