The Internet and World Wide Web
The Internet is a network connecting computers all over the world.
Brief History Of the Internet
1960s
- Department of Defense connected multiple military computers to help protect computer systems in the case of nuclear attack.
- Each computer node has a unique "address"
- Government sites have a .gov in their address.
1970s
- Universities and Research labs connected their computers to the network.
- They accessed Supercomputers for research
- They used the network to send electronic mail
- University sites have a .edu in their address.
1991
- Congress opened up the Internet for commercial use.
- Commercial companies have a .com in their address
- Organizations have a .org in their address.
SALES ON THE WEB
1995-- $400 million in sales
1999-- Estimates range from $400 million to $2 billion
According to the Yankee Group (1998), internet sales were:
- travel $1355 million
- software/hardware $1085 million
- gifts and flowers: $536 million
- books: $518 million
- music; entertainmnt $562 million
- clothing: $316 million
DEMOGRAPHICS OF CURRENT SURFERS
Demographics of web surfers has rapidly shifted in the past 5 years. Five years ago,
web surfers were highly educated (81% were college educated) ,upper middle class ,
possessed superior technical skills , were typically male (64%) , young (35--note that ABC
news classifies 35 as "middle-aged") , and 84% resided in the US. Each semester, an MIS480
group updates demographic information for web surfers and web buyers. Compared to 5 years
ago, people from all economic, social, and national backgrounds are surfing the web.
At UMSL, we use Netscape as our web browser. Netscape was developed by a student
at the University of Illinois in 1993--Marc Andreessen.