You may have heard the terms “Internet” and “World Wide Web,” or just “web.” The terms are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing at all. The Internet is a world-wide collection of smaller networks, all interconnected to create the whole. All sorts of data are transferred through the Internet. The World Wide Web is made up of websites that you browse. You can thank the Internet for allowing you to do things such as sending emails or playing games against your cousin across the country, but these are not part of the web.

But there are some things you need to know about the web. First, it's made up mostly of websites, which are made up of web pages. What is the difference between a website and a web page? Well, a website consists of one or more web pages. Web pages are the foundation of the World Wide Web. One or more, and maybe thousands, of web pages can comprise one website. Think of the website as the book that holds the individual web pages. To view web pages, you'll need a web browser. A browser is simply software, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Netscape Navigator, that translate the code with which web pages are written. Thus, browsers show you the text, graphics, and maybe other things that make up the web page.

One key thing is the importance of searching the web for information and data. To search the World Wide Web, you will need to use a search engine. This is simply a website that searches for web pages that match your search criteria. When we talk about searching, we are talking about finding web pages that are important to us based on descriptive words or phrases.

Another important distinction is the difference between software and hardware. You may also refer to a software package as a computer program. Software is what tells your computer to do the things it's supposed to do. Hardware, on the other hand, refers to the physical components of your computer system. Your monitor, keyboard, hard drive, memory chips, etc. are all examples of hardware. When we talk about needing either special hardware or software to do something like hosting a website, keep these differences in mind.

Finally, you should understand what e-commerce is, or any other e-______ for that matter. In all cases, the e stands for “electronic.” e-Commerce, for example, refers to doing business electronically or, more specifically, over the Internet. An e-newsletter is a newsletter sent electronically by e-mail. e-Mail is, you guessed it, mail sent electronically. Throughout, we have followed the convention of always entering the ‘e' as a lower case letter. You'll find difference in this convention as you read other resources. None are incorrect. We just selected one to be consistent throughout the course.