COM125 Week2: World Wide Web

The World Wide Web started in the 90s by Tim Berners-Lee (top) and Robert Cailliau (bottom) who were working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. (“Wikipedia: History of the Internet”, 20 August 2006).

As defined by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, the World Wide Wed (WWW) is, “a system of interlinked, hypertext documents that runs over the Internet. Web pages are often arranged in collections of related material called Web sites.” Statistics have shown that there were more than 11.5 billion web pages in the publicly indexable Web as of January 2005. "WWW" is commonly found at the beginning of Web addresses. The "www" prefix is simply one choice for a Web site's subdomain name.

Ajax ("Asynchronous JavaScript And XML") is a JavaScript-based technology which plays an important role in the development of the World Wide Web. (“Wikipedia: History of the World Wide Web”). Ajax allows a web page to be updated, using, “new information obtained over the network in response to user actions, allowing the page to be much more responsive, interactive and interesting,” as Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia explains.

Social Implications
With the development of World Wide Web, people across the world are drawn closer. Social networking advanced tremendously. Web sites like “friendster.com” and “wholivesnearyou.com” are definitely popular. This reminds me of Marshall Mc Luhan’s concept of Global Village. The world is being made smaller through the usage of internet. Just as Wikipedia states, “emotional experiences, political ideas, cultural customs, musical idioms, business advice, artwork, photographs, literature, can all be shared and disseminated digitally with less individual investment than ever before in human history.” It has brought about much convenience and sharing indeed.

In today’s society, I believe 9 out of 10 students have a Friendster account. I became a member of Friendster since October 2003 and currently, I have one hundred and thirteen friends on my list. The number of friends that I have in the account may seem a lot but in fact, I have rejected many others who I do not know. I have seen people who have five hundred over friends. This makes me realize how wide our social circle can be. Previously without this web site, I have actually lost contact with many of my old friends. However, most of them are now in my friends list. In Friendster, we can post our photos and view others as well. We can add testimonials for each other; send each other messages, etc. We are able to know the location of the people in Friendster too. Unlike the past, where I use the computer only for typing and playing games, with the development of World Wide Web, I am able to use the internet to browse many other web sites, be it looking for information or widening my social circle.

Another web site which I often use is wholivesnearyou.com. This is a site similar to that of Friendster but it is only accessible to the local. Just like Friendster, I have been a member since 2003. I chat with many people within and beyond my neighborhood. I have made many new net friends. People may think that this kind of advancement in the World Wide Web where people can know so many “strangers” through a web site is unsafe. However, I feel that it is the individuals who make the decisions whether to endanger themselves or not. Personally, I do not meet net friends, I only chat with them online. Hence, I do not see any harm in knowing more “strangers” online.

With the aid of World Wide Web, people open up many web sites. Lastly, another web site that has influence me quite a bit in the usage of Internet (where I only used to check emails) is eBay (auctions). I started online shopping quite recently and had bought many things like clothes, earrings and other accessories. I used to get bored using the computer but after I browse through the sites from eBay, I enjoyed shopping online as I do not have to be in the crowd. Moreover, the prices set online are much cheaper; I do not even have to bargain.

In conclusion, with the development of World Wide Web, the way I use the Internet and how I view it have changed. Advancement allows creativity and variety in the web. This makes going online a more joyous activity to a technology idiot, like me. =)