Clearing the misconception that has long been debated both inside and outside the computing classroom will provide a solid foundation towards understanding the revolution of the world wide web technology.
Over the years, especially during my course of teaching computer science at undergraduate level, I have noticed that many of my students found it difficult to clearly differentiate between INTERNET and WORLD WIDE WEB.
To many, Internet and World Wide Web are the same thing while some were of opinion that there is a difference between them. However those who were of the later opinion could not differentiate the difference so well despite their differ opinion.
Before I dwell into it, may I ask you also which opinion are you holding on to? Is Internet the same with World Wide Web or not?
Oh..Ok! Keep your opinion to yourself for now and let's dwell into it.
The INTERNET
Internet application is undoubtedly one of the great innovations in the last seventy years. Daily routine activities such as engagement with one and others, learning, teaching among others have taken a new dimension and can not fully maximize its potential without the so called internet.
However, many people find it difficult to differentiate it from World Wide Web. Let me say it out here The Internet is not the World Wide Web.
The word Internet can be referred to the interconnected network of networks and many application services run across it, some of these application services include: File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Telnet, Peer to Peer (P2P), Electronic Mail (E-Mail), and the World Wide Web (WWW) as shown in Figure 1. above
As shown in Figure 1. above. World Wide Web is just an application running on Internet. That is without Internet, there will be no World Wide Web, whereas without World Wide Web there will be an Internet. Simply put in mathematics that World Wide Web is a subset of Internet, other subsets include Per To Peer, E-Mail, Telnet, File Transfer Protocol among others.
Having explained the misconception between the internet and the world wide web, It is high time we discussed our topic for today
Revolution of the World Wide Web Technology
World Wide Web (www) is usually called Web and it was developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994. Like I have explained above it is one of the internet applications like E-Mail, Telnet e.tc.
However, since establishment of world wide web, innovation in world wide web or web technology has not ceased to exist, starting from first version called Web 1.0 to second version (web 2.0) and now at third version (web 3.0).
Let's study the generations so far and what tremendous changes had taken place since its inception.
The First Generation of World Wide Web (web 1.0)
Web 1.0 is the first generation of the World Wide Web, it consists of static page coded using only Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). It is a version of web pages that is limited to static websites. It can only present users with static information, that is, information which could only be read but it can not be interacted with either by commenting, updating, like or up voting as we used to do here. The only way to develop a website then is through writing lines of codes manually, debugging the program was an issue then because you have to scan through several lines of HTML codes. However, it was enjoyable then because there was no alternative and many could not think of a better future like we are now. The Figure 3 above is the logos of some of the common applications in use during web 1.0.
The Second Generation of World Wide Web (web 2.0)
[Figure 4, Image source: Flickr]
The second generation of World Wide Web is called Web 2.0, it changed a lot of things, especially the difficulties with web 1.0. It gives user more freedom to interact with one and others and the programmers have the flexibility in terms of writing their codes, an era of writing code using what you see is what you get editor (WYSIWYG), content management system (CMS), social media, search engine among others. In fact, many people still believe that we have not settled with web 2. 0 before moving to web 3. 0.
The Figure 4 above is the logos of some of the common applications in use during web 2.0.
The Third Generation of World Wide Web (web 3.0)
[Image created by the author @noble-noah]
The third generation of World Wide Web (web 3.0) is usually called The game changer because it comes with a lot of enhancements which are capable to change our experience totally into a new world.
Without web 3.0, there will be nothing like Hive, bitcoin , presearch, brave, Torum, signal, Odysee, DuckDuckGo, LBRY, and my former platform steemit among other cryptocurrency platforms, because they are all built on blockchain technology which is just one of the applications of web 3.0 technology. Other applications built on web 3.0 technology includes: Artificial Intelligence systems that could run smart programs to assist end users, The Internet of Things among others.
Closing Remarks
World Wide Web Technology has passed through tremendous changes in the past: In terms of web layout, content delivery, structural layout among others, but this latest generation of world wide web (web 3.0) is a Game Changer.
Of course Web 2.0 was superb and it has changed our daily routine system completely including business activities, education system and social engagement which has led to the rapid increment in the amount of data flow over the internet.
However, web 2.0 despite its advancement and huge data flow was built without considering monetary reward for the end users/ authors of this data and that is just one of of the advantages of web 3.0. Imagine how much you could make when using presearch instead of Google, when using HIVE instead of facebook, when using LBRY, Odysee instead of youtube, when using Torum instead of Instagram and when using Signal instead of Whatsapp.
Many organizations are now struggling to keep up with the competition by monetizing the content with no need to negatively impacting the user’s experience.
Security is another aspect that make web 3.0 technology better. It is very difficult to hack web 3.0 applications. In fact, there is a research that asserted that to hack a blockchain technology, more than 50% of the users must agree. this is because it is a decentralized platform unless all the users confide together otherwise it will not be possible to manipulate a single data on every body's node by an individual.
The use of semantics, Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence is another advantage brought by web 3.0. Also unlike before, Our Digital assets can now be transferred and moved quickly and efficiently leading to the distribution of wealth with no barriers.
Thanks for being with me throughout this journey. I do hope this treatise meets you well. Your usual comment and engagement is very important.
References
1. Internet: Applications
2. A Brief History of the Internet
3. 10 Web Tech Innovations That Have Improved Our Lives
4. Blockchain: The Game-Changing Technology in Web 3.0
5. What is Blockchain technology and future world of web 3.0