Internet - Terminology

Terminology

Internet is a short form of the technical term internetwork, the result of interconnecting computer networks with special gateways or routers. Historically the word has been used, uncapitalized, as a verb and adjective since 1883 to refer to interconnected motions. It was also used from 1974 before the Internet, uncapitalized, as a verb meaning to connect together, especially for networks. The Internet is also often referred to as the Net.

The Internet, referring to the specific entire global system of IP networks, is a proper noun and written with an initial capital letter. In the media and common use it is often not capitalized: "the internet". Some guides specify that the word should be capitalized as a noun but not capitalized as an adjective.

The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used interchangeably in everyday speech; it is common to speak of going on the Internet when invoking a browser to view Web pages. However, the Internet is a particular global computer network connecting millions of computing devices; the World Wide Web is just one of many services running on the Internet. The Web is a collection of interconnected documents (Web pages) and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. In addition to the Web, a multitude of other services are implemented over the Internet, including e-mail, file transfer, remote computer control, newsgroups, and online games. Web (and other) services can be implemented on any intranet, accessible to network users.