The Internet is a network of networks, linking computers to computers. These computers include government supercomputers, campus wide information systems, local area networks and individual workstations. The Internet itself does not contain information. It is not located in one place and the computers that are connected to the Internet are distributed throughout the world. These computers are connected to each other by data lines and they can send information to each other because they all use the same protocol software. Computer links to the Internet allows each of us to share information and resources such as government documents, electronic publications, online books, media publishing, images, computer software, bibliographic and full-text databases. Internet is an useful tool for distance learning, looking up factual information, researching topics, networking with colleagues and friends, conducting business transactions worldwide, and for personal entertainment.
Among the services provided by Internet, the World Wide Web (WWW or "the Web") is the largest, fastest growing activity. Through the WWW, internet users can view images, look at film clips, hear sound recordings, and find information on many interests. The Web's hypertext documents allow users to move from one document to another by selecting highlighted links to access related Internet sources. Netscape and Internet Explorer are two of the popular WWW graphic browsers that allow users to images, films and sound via the Internet.
