Internet vs. World Wide Web

Internet & World Wide Web

The Internet is sometimes shortened and simply called the ‘net‘ or the ‘web.’ The former is fine but I would disagree with the latter.

The ‘web‘ is short for the ‘World Wide Web‘ from which the abbreviation ‘www‘ in the Internet [URL] address you see on the upper part of browsers, came from.

By technical definition, the Internet is a “massive infrastructure  of global networks consisting of interconnected computers and cables where information can be transmitted…”

Whereas the World Wide Web is just a subnetwork, albeit the most popular, on the Internet. It is “a system of Internet servers that support HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) formatted documents over HTTP (Hypertext transfer protocol).” (both definitions from Webopedia). To access the world wide web, we open up our computer browsers (also called ‘web browsers’) and surf websites.

We’ll not go into technical details discussing HTML and HTTP. Simply put, the web is just a portion of the Internet where you usually browse websites. As a whole, the Internet also accommodates other subnetworks such as FTP, SMTP Email, and others.

The Internet and World Wide Web are not the same and should not be confused when it should be distinct.