The World Wide Web was invented in 1989, by Tim Berners-Lee, a graduate of Oxford University and a scientist at CERN. It was designed and developed to enable scientists working in different universities and institutes all over the world to share their information. Since then, the WWW has developed from its original scientific beginnings, and now has millions of academic and commercial users. In fact, statistics show that nearly 1 billion people use the Web across the world.
The World Wide Web is a vast store of information available at the click of a mouse. To access it, you need a computer, an Internet connection, and a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.
The function of a Web browser is to decipher the programming language of a web page and translate it into the words and graphics that you can see on your screen. On each page, certain phrases, words, or even images may be underlined or highlighted. These are known as links (or hyperlinks), and clicking on one will redirect the browser to another page. Moving from one webpage to another is called 'browsing' or 'surfing the Web'.
Nearly 60% of the UK population regularly access the Web, using it to shop online, download music, research family history, or simply just to see what's out there.
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