Internet vs WWW - what's the difference?

Many people think that the Internet and the World Wide Web are the same. Although they are intermingled and used together, they are certainly not the same. The Internet could exist without the Web, but the Web as we know it could not exist without the Internet.

The Internet and some of its Services

In simple terms, the Internet is the physical infrastructure on which services like the Web run. The Web may be the biggest service running on the Internet, but there are other important services, such as email, FTP and mobile apps.

Infrastructure: the Internet

the Internet, Internet, internet (noun): a vast global network of computers, servers and other electronic devices connected underground, overground, undersea and through space by wires, cables, radio and satellite. - The project to create the Internet began in the 1960s, long before the World Wide Web came into being.

Services: World Wide Web and other examples

the World Wide Web, WWW, the Web, the web (noun): an information service on the Internet accessible to users through browsers using a standard hyper-text transfer protocol (HTTP) that allows websites and webpages to link to each other and transport visitors around the web. - Is it true that the World Wide Web contains more information than all the books in all the libraries in the whole world?

The Englishman Tim Berners-Lee is credited with being the inventor of the World Wide Web.
The original idea of the web was that it should be a collaborative space where you can communicate through sharing information.Tim Berners-Lee

email (noun): a global communications service on the Internet accessible to users through email software and through browsers using a standard address system based on username@domainname that allows near-instantaneous delivery of messages. - People used to claim that email would be replaced by social media messaging, but it's going stronger than ever.

FTP (abbreviation): File Transfer Protocol
File Transfer Protocol (noun): a standard on the Internet for the rapid/direct exchange of digital files between computers and servers. - Many webmasters use FTP to upload all the pages of their website to their server.

2022

Contributor: Josef Essberger

Reference and Further Reading