The internet, sometimes simply called the net, is a worldwide system of interconnected computer networks and electronic devices that communicate with each other using an established set of protocols.
The internet was conceived by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969. ARPA was later renamed the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in 1972. DARPA’s first known packet-switching network was known as the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). The original goal was to create a network that would let users of a research computer at one university talk to research computers at other universities. A side benefit of ARPANET’s design was that because messages could be routed or rerouted in more than one direction, the network could continue to function even if parts of it were destroyed in the event of a military attack or other disaster.
Today, the internet is a public, cooperative and self-sustaining facility accessible to hundreds of millions of people worldwide. It’s used by many as the primary source of information consumption and has fueled the creation and growth of its own social ecosystem through social media and content sharing. In addition, e-commerce, or online shopping, has become one of the largest uses of the internet. Millions of users shop for and sell products on the internet using popular e-commerce and marketing platforms, such as Amazon and Shopify.
History of the internet
In 1983, the ARPANET began using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) open networking protocol suite and in 1985, the National Science Foundation Network designed the network to connect university computer science departments around the U.S.
Communications over the internet greatly improved in 1989 when the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) was created, enabling different computer platforms to connect to the same internet sites. In 1993, the Mosaic web browser was created.
