What is the Internet?

Blog

Short for "web log." It's a type of web site that is usually updated frequently, often with news articles or random thoughts.

VoIP Example

Skype

HTML files

Specially-formatted documents that can contain links, as well as images and other media.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

Typically consists of two or more LANs. The computers are farther apart and are linked by telephone lines, dedicated telephone lines, or radio waves.

Wiki Examples

Wikipedia & Wikihow

Online chat

A system that allows users to communicate in real time. Unlike e-mail, all messages show up immediately in the same window, which makes conversations quicker and easier.

Instant messaging

A type of chat where you communicate with a specific person instead of an entire chat room.

Social networking

Refers to online services that allow people to interact with each other and stay connected with friends, family, and people around the world. Examples include Facebook and Twitter.

Streaming

If you watch a movie online or listen to iTunes radio. It plays while downloading so you don't have to wait for it to download first. The media starts downloading a little bit before it starts playing (called "buffering") so that it can play more smoothly.

Social Bookmarking Sites

Reddit, Pinterest

Local Area Network (LAN)

Two or more connected computers sharing certain resources in a relatively small geographic location, often in the same building. Examples include home networks and office networks.

Email (electronic mail)

A system for sending and receiving messages online. Many include extra features such as calendars, task lists, instant messaging, web feeds, and news headlines.

Server

A computer that "serves" many different computers in a network by running specialized software and storing information.

Network

A group of two or more computer systems linked together.

ARPAnet

A project started by the US Department of Defense in 1969 to allow military personnel to communicate with each other in an emergency which became the foundation of the Internet

Wiki

A type of website that allows content to be edited or created by anyone. This allows content to stay up to date and (ideally) allows for errors to be found and corrected. Examples include Wikipedia, which is an encyclopedia, and wikiHow, which is a collection of how-to guides.

World Wide Web

A virtual network of web sites connected by hyperlinks

Social bookmarking

Allows users all over the internet to save and share interesting sites. Examples include Reddit and Delicious. Some sites are mainly used to share photos that people have found around the web. Pinterest is an example of this type of site.

Web feed

Also known as a news feed, is a way to receive updates from your favorite web sites and blogs. Instead of visiting many different sites to check for updates, you can read their feeds on a feed reader. Two common feed formats are RSS and Atom.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)

Also known as internet telephone, allows a user to have telephone service through an internet connection. Some people find that they can save money by using this instead of purchasing a separate telephone service. One example is Skype.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

Also known as the web address, tells the browser exactly where to find the page.

Web Browsers

Can read HTML files.

Tim Berners-Lee

Created the World Wide Web in 1989. Before then, computers could communicate over the internet, but there were no web pages.

Buffering

Downloading media a little bit before it starts playing

Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks

Each computer acts as both a server and a client. Examples include Skype and BitTorrent.

Social Networking Sites

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

HTML Files

The backbone of the World Wide Web

Internet

The largest Wide Area Network (WAN) in existence.

Internet

The largest computer network in the world, connecting millions of computers.

2.4 billion

The number of internet users worldwide by 2012.

Internet

The physical network of computers all over the world.

Podcast

You can subscribe to a series of audio or video files that will automatically be downloaded to your computer. The files can then be played on the computer or an mp3 player. Basically a web feed for media. Unlike internet radio, these are not streaming, so the media has to download fully before it can be played.

Client

Your computer when you access a web page. Runs familiar software such as web browsers or email software, and it communicates with the server to get the information it requires. In order for your browser to display a web page, it requests the data from the server where the page is stored. The server processes the request, then sends the data to your browser, where it is displayed.

Hyperlinks

aka "links"