The World Wide Web, often referred to as the Web, is a widespread information system platform that billions of people interact with daily. Invented by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the Web was designed to support connections between multiple databases on different computers. Its function is to facilitate content sharing over the Internet[1] in a user-friendly manner. This is achieved through web servers that make documents and media content available. Users can locate and access these resources through Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). The Web supports various content types and allows for easy navigation across websites via hyperlinks. Its use extends to various sectors including education, entertainment, commerce, and government, with information provided by companies, organizations, government agencies, and individual users.
The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond IT specialists and hobbyists. It allows documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet according to specific rules of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
 The historic World Wide Web logo, designed by Robert Cailliau. Currently, there is no widely accepted logo in use for the WWW. | |
| Year started | 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee |
|---|---|
| Organization | CERN |
The Web was invented by English computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee while at CERN in 1989 and opened to the public in 1991. It was conceived as a "universal linked information system". Documents and other media content are made available to the network through web servers and can be accessed by programs such as web browsers. Servers and resources on the World Wide Web are identified and located through character strings called uniform resource locators (URLs).
The original and still very common document type is a web page formatted in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). This markup language supports plain text, images, embedded video and audio contents, and scripts (short programs) that implement complex user interaction. The HTML language also supports hyperlinks (embedded URLs) which provide immediate access to other web resources. Web navigation, or web surfing, is the common practice of following such hyperlinks across multiple websites. Web applications are web pages that function as application software. The information in the Web is transferred across the Internet using HTTP. Multiple web resources with a common theme and usually a common domain name make up a website. A single web server may provide multiple websites, while some websites, especially the most popular ones, may be provided by multiple servers. Website content is provided by a myriad of companies, organizations, government agencies, and individual users; and comprises an enormous amount of educational, entertainment, commercial, and government information.
The Web has become the world's dominant information systems platform. It is the primary tool that billions of people worldwide use to interact with the Internet.
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