Tools of the Internet

Brief history of the Internet and Web browsers

Internet and the web is at the point today where it can nearly be considered a necessity and can be accessed very easily from several different web browsers. It hasn’t always been like this though, in fact, in 1990 the only way that you could access the internet was through a browser called the WorldWide Web, but was later renamed Nexus to avoid confusion from the internet in general being called the World Wide Web (McPeak, 2018). Windows stock web browser, Internet Explorer, was introduced in 1995 has been updated accordingly to remain the stock web browser for windows up until 2015 when it was renamed to Microsoft Edge and redesigned for windows 10 (McPeak, 2018).

Social Networking

      Social networking is a form of internet media that brings people together such as Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and many more (Nations, 2018). With the way that social networking brings people together, it is likely that you have many friends that you have never met in person or ‘Internet Friends’. The great thing about social networking is that in essence its meant for everyone, there is no target age groups, with it being community driven we can share knowledge with each other and it can even be used to help find a job or a significant other (Nations, 2018).

Email 

Email first began in the mid 1960’s but didn’t become standardized until the early 1970’s (Gibbs, 2016). The original intent for email was to be a way for people to communicate from a distance via the internet, but as technology evolved, email followed pursuit and is now a firm cornerstone for almost anything you do online. You won’t need an email to browse online, but if you want to comment on something, join a social media site or to simply order something online, you’ll need an email to do so.

Wikis and Blogs

          A wiki is a community driven information center on the web that can be edited by anyone very quickly (Waters, 2007). A wiki is traditionally composed of just text. Wikipedia is the most well-known wiki and has pages on almost any topic. With a wiki being community driven, it is recommended to use caution when viewing because not all the information is always correct. A blog, which is short for web log, is a web page where people can post text entries where the most recent post is the first post to be shown (Waters, 2007). Unlike a wiki, a blog can only be edited by the author, but can include various forms of media.

Podcasts and Webcasts 

          Podcasts and webcasts are similar in that they’re both audio/ video recordings that can be found on the web (Dems, 2018). The difference between the two is found in the way that they are delivered. A podcast is intended to be downloaded and placed on a device where it can be viewed, and a webcast is built into the website where it is hosted and intended to be viewed from the web page.

Streaming Media

(Image source: Sibent. (n.d.). Youtube Logo [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/en/youtube-youtube-logo-symbol-media-2844504/)

          Audio and video files that can be played instantly from its online source without being saved prior is streaming media (Rouse, 2009). In the last few years, technology has seen a huge increase in media files that can be streamed. Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, Pandora and Youtube are some of the most widely known hubs for streaming media. Streaming media can be accessed from any device that can access the internet.

E-Commerce and M-Commerce

          Welcome to online shopping, the newest way to shop. E-Commerce is defined as online shopping via a laptop or desktop computer and M-Commerce is online shopping from a mobile device (Bhragava, 2017). Amazon.com is one of the largest online shopping industries in the world.

References

Bhragava, K. (2017). What is the Difference Between eCommerce and mCommerce?    Retrieved from MageNative: https://medium.com/magenative/key-differences-between-e-commerce-and-m-commerce-ecf880f6d261

Dems, K. (2018). Comparison and Contrast: Webcast vs Podcast. Retrieved from Bright Hub: https://www.brighthub.com/multimedia/audio/articles/110150.aspx

Gibbs, S. (2016). How did email grow from messages between academics to a global epidemic? Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/07/email-ray-tomlinson-history

McPeak, A. (2018). A Brief History of Web Browsers and How They Work. Retrieved from CrossBrowserTesting: https://crossbrowsertesting.com/blog/test-automation/history-of-web-browsers/

Nations, D. (2018). What is Social Networking? Retrieved from Lifewire: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-social-networking-3486513

Rouse, M. (2009). Streaming Media. Retrieved from Whatis.techtarget: https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/streaming-media

Waters, J. (2007). Blogs and Wikis in the Business World Definition and Solutions. Retrieved from CIO: https://www.cio.com/article/2438542/web-services/blogs-and-wikis-in-the-business-world-definition-and-solutions.html