4.2 Finding information: the web

The web is a vast storehouse of ever changing, linked information on subjects as diverse as dog breeding, astronomy, tiddlywinks, and coping with bereavement.
A browser, like Internet Explorer, is used to access the web. However, given that the web contains literally billions of words of text, how would you find information on, say, the Open University?

The internet and the web: what's the difference?

People sometimes confuse the internet and the World Wide Web.
The internet refers to the physical interconnection of large numbers of smaller data communications networks to form a huge, publicly accessible ‘network of networks’. Thus the internet carries electronic mail (email), hosts chat rooms and bulletin boards, enables the transfer of files, and is the physical basis for supporting the World Wide Web.
The web is the collection of linked data stored on the internet which is accessed using a browser.