Today, the definition of the Internet is very generic and stands by both digital and physical infrastructure required for it to work, including the global computer network and the applications running on top of it.
The Web, on the other hand, is a specific ‘application’ over the Internet. It’s everything that runs inside a browser such as Google Chrome or Safari. It’s all the applications that rely on the HTTP protocol for the exchange of pages between users, and navigation through links.
So, every time you are navigating on the Web browser, you are necessarily on the Internet.
But not always you are using the Internet (like a mobile app outside of a browser) you will necessarily be on the Web.
WEB | Pages with links running over browsers. |
But this is the short answer.
Let’s dive a little deeper and understand what exactly the Internet is made of.
Every time you click on a button or link in your browser, or in a mobile app, a request data packet leaves your computer or cellphone and goes to a server (another computer), which then sends a data packet back with some information in response.
These packets, to be interpreted throughout the global computer network, ought to “talk” following the same protocols (standards/rules).
Protocols can sound a little bit abstract, but you are very familiar with this concept.
Think about this article.
You are only able to read it because you understand the English protocol. You expect a combination of well-known characters in a specific order to form words that means something.
If I write assaef faielli you wouldn’t understand, because it doesn’t mean anything in the English standard.
Or, if I write 01101000 01101001 you won’t understand either, because you didn’t know the binary system. (btw, it means ‘hi’ :)).
Thus, the Internet is as if humans came together to create from scratch a new idiom that would be understood by all nations and cultures. But, instead of human language, the Internet is a computer language.
And it’s because of these properties that your Android cellphone can talk transparently with an iPhone, which talks in its turn with a Windows computer, that communicates with a Linux tablet, and so on, despite the country or local culture.
If you have the skills and resources you can create an app (like a browser) or even a new operating system to communicate with the entire Internet.
And all these without asking for anybody’s permission.