World Wide Web

Definition: The term WWW refers to the World Wide Web or simply the Web. The World Wide Web consists of all the public Web sites connected to the Internet worldwide, including the client devices (such as computers and cell phones) that access Web content. The WWW is just one of many applications of the Internet and computer networks.


It is a collection of Internet resources such as hyper-linked text, audio, and video files, and remote sites that can be accessed and searched by browsers based on standards such as HTTP and TCP/IP.

The World Web is based on these technologies:

• HTML - Hypertext Markup Language
• HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol
• Web servers and Web browsers

Researcher Tim Berners-Lee led the development of the original World Wide Web in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He helped build prototypes of the above Web technologies and coined the term "WWW." Web sites and Web browsing exploded in popularity during the mid-1990s.

Mitchell, B. (n.d.). WWW - World Wide Web [Online article]. Retrieved Aprl 28, 2012, from the World Wide Web: http://compnetworking.about.com/cs/worldwideweb/g/bldef_www.htm