Internet vs World Wide Web: What is the Difference?

Many people use the words Internet and World Wide Web as if they mean the same thing. They do not. The two are related, but they are not the same. This article explains what each one is, and how they are different.

What is the Internet?

The Internet is a global network of computers, phones, and servers that are connected to each other. It started in the late 1960s as a project called ARPANET in the United States. Today it links billions of devices across the world.

The Internet by itself does not show you web pages. It is just the network. It is the wires, cables, fibre, Wi-Fi, and satellites that move data from one device to another.

Many different services run on top of the Internet. The World Wide Web is one of them. Others include:

• Email (Gmail, Outlook)
• File transfer (FTP)
• Online games (PUBG, Minecraft)
• Video calls (Zoom, Google Meet, WhatsApp)
• Streaming services (Netflix, Spotify)
• Messaging apps (WhatsApp, Telegram)

What is the World Wide Web?

The World Wide Web (also called the Web or WWW) is a system of linked documents and media that you open in a web browser. It was invented in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN.

The Web uses four main technologies:

1. HTTP, the rules that move pages from servers to your browser.
2. HTML, the language that builds web pages.
3. URLs, the addresses of pages (for example, https://wikipedia.org).
4. Web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari that display the pages.

When you type a website address in your browser, you are using the Web. The Web is just one service that uses the Internet to move data around.

Flashcard

What is the difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web?

Tap to reveal

Answer

The Internet is the global network. The WWW is one service that runs on it.

• The Internet started in the 1960s. The WWW started in 1989.
• The Internet carries all kinds of data: emails, video calls, files, games, and web pages.
• The WWW carries only web pages, which you open in a browser.

You use the Internet every time you send a WhatsApp message. You use the WWW every time you open a website.

Side by Side

A Simple Analogy

Think of the Internet as the roads of a city, and the WWW as one type of vehicle that uses those roads.

The roads carry many kinds of traffic:

• Buses (the WWW, web pages in your browser) are the most common. Most people on the road are on a bus, so the buses take up most of the space.
• Cars (video calls like Zoom or Google Meet)
• Motorbikes (instant messages on WhatsApp)
• Trucks (large file downloads)
• Post vans (email)
• Ambulances (online games and other time-sensitive traffic)
• Cycles (small background updates from apps)

All of them need the roads. The roads do not care which vehicle is using them. The roads are the Internet.

Among all those vehicles, the buses are the WWW. They are not the only traffic. They are just the most common and the most visible. That is why people often confuse the buses with the road itself, the same way they confuse the WWW with the Internet.

Flashcard

Name three services that run on the Internet apart from the World Wide Web.

Tap to reveal

Answer

Any three of these are correct:

• Email
• Video calls (Zoom, Google Meet)
• Messaging apps (WhatsApp, Telegram)
• File transfer (FTP)
• Online games
• Streaming services (Netflix, Spotify)

All of them use the Internet, but none of them are the Web.