The Internet vs. the Web - What's the Difference?

The Web is, for me, easier to explain: it's the system we use to access all the information stored in the Internet. There are other systems out there that can access the Internet (for example, email and instant messaging), but the Web is the most popular and widely used. We access the Web every day through browsers like Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge. The Web was invented in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee to meet the demand for automatic information sharing between scientists in universities and institutes around the world. 

The Internet is a little bit trickier for me to personally wrap my brain around. It's a network of networks, interconnected and configured into Local Area Networks (LANs) and regional networks. Every electronic device is connected to the Internet in some way, even satellites. The Internet was the brainchild of hundreds of scientists, programmers, and engineers and its creation spanned decades; the earliest prototype, ARPANET (the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), was created in the 1960s on behalf of the US Department of Defense. In the 70s, scientists Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf developed Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), a communications model setting standards for data was to be transmitted between multiple networks. This protocol was adopted by ARPANET in 1983, setting the stage for the Internet we know and love today, which took its most recognizable form in 1990 with the advent of Tim Berners-Lee's World Wide Web. 

Basically, it boils down to this: the Internet is pure information from every electronic device on Earth, and the Web is what we use to access that information. The Internet was invented first, its earliest prototype coming out in the 1960s, whereas the Web was invented in 1990 in order to make it easier for people to access the Internet. 

The first webpage came online on August 6, 1991, and was dedicated to information about on the World Wide Web project. It was created by the same man who created who invented the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee. It can still be found at http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html.

Sources: 

Andrews, E. (2013, December 18). Who Invented the Internet? Retrieved August 31, 2020, from https://www.history.com/news/who-invented-the-internet"Who Invented the Internet?" 

CERN Accelerating science. (n.d.). Retrieved August 31, 2020, from https://home.cern/science/computing/birth-web/short-history-web

Shontell, A. (2011, June 29). FLASHBACK: This Is What The First-Ever Website Looked Like. Retrieved August 31, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/flashback-this-is-what-the-first-website-ever-looked-like-2011-6

Toothman, J. (2008, July 09). What's the Difference Between the Internet and the World Wide Web? Retrieved August 31, 2020, from https://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/internet-versus-world-wide-web1.htm