web/internet
I am often mesmerized by how people use the terms “Internet” and “Web” interchangeably, as if they were synonymous. Sometimes even in meetings at work, the discuss ends with the differentiation pointed by a person fed up with this (taken from weboepedia):
The Internet is a massive network of networks, a networking infrastructure. It connects millions of computers together globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate with any other computer as long as they are both connected to the Internet. Information that travels over the Internet does so via a variety of languages known as protocols.
The World Wide Web, or simply Web, is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet. (…) The Web uses the HTTP protocol, only one of the languages spoken over the Internet, to transmit data. Web services, which use HTTP to allow applications to communicate in order to exchange business logic, use the the Web to share information. The Web also utilizes browsers, such as Internet Explorer or Netscape, to access Web documents called Web pages that are linked to each other via hyperlinks.
The Web is just one of the ways that information can be disseminated over the Internet. The Internet, not the Web, is also used for e-mail, which relies on SMTP, Usenet news groups, instant messaging and FTP. So the Web is just a portion of the Internet, albeit a large portion, but the two terms are not synonymous and should not be confused.
Why do I blog this? Even though this is a mistake and a common one, it’s interesting to see how people name things and it seems that this mistake is made in english or in other language (for example my mother tongue: french). However, I am not nerdy enough to take the piss when people interchange the words, what is rather intriguing is the underlying reasons for that.
Besides, I really prefer the term “information super-highway” which definetely rocks (”les autoroutes de l’information” in french) because it can lead to tremendous wording such as “having a homepage on an information superhighway” or “traffic jam on an information super-highway”.
This also reminds me the discussion Julian Bleecker had about “being in the Internet” or “on the Internet”, or saying “the InternetS”.
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Actually, saying “internets” is correct, while spelling it with a capital I is not. The Internet is the proper name for the network we all know and love, but any network of networks is an internet. The IEEE used to make this distinction on the RFCs, but it’s not that common to see it anymore.
January 2nd, 2007 at 9:53 pm
I also read “être devant Internet” (literaly being in front of the Internet) probably suggesting the passive, tv-like use of the web. My favorite expression related to the spatitial perception of the Internet (the metaphor of the super-highway) is most certainly “I’ll catch you on the email”.
January 3rd, 2007 at 2:14 pm
Well, it’s just a means of communication. We can use whatever we want. Even in the wrong way, if a number of people r using, it becomes the right way.
January 3rd, 2007 at 7:59 pm
I fear I was one of these nitwits - until my programmer husband explained the geography of the whole situation to me. My Mother often pluralizes email to ‘emails’ which is very confounding. One would not say I received severals ‘mails’ today, why emails?
When I worked as a sommelier, I remember being irritated over the same sort of gross misunderstandings- (”Chardonnay- how can white Burgundy be Chardonnay? I do not like Chardonnay!!!” or “Merlot- I hate Merlot!! What do you mean this Pomerol is 85% Merlot! Robert Parker gave it 96 points.”)
I like this blog very much. I found it while I was doing some research about tunecore.