World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is one of several utilities—including e-mail, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Telnet and Usenet—that form the Internet. Based on a 1989 proposal from Tim Berners-Lee, it was developed at the European Center for Nuclear Research as a way to share information about nuclear physics. At the heart of the Web is a system of many Web servers—computers or software programs that make it possible for end-users to view and teleport between Web pages, or specially formatted documents commonly written in Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML). The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) describes the Web as "the universe of network-accessible information, the embodiment of human knowledge."

Locations on the World Wide Web, which commonly reside on individual servers, are known as Web sites. Web sites have individual addresses called uniform resource locators (URLs), which must be used to gain access. Upon visiting a Web site, visitors normally begin on its home page. This document often serves as an index to other content within the site, or contains hypertext links to content residing on a different Web site.

Web pages are viewed through software applications called Web browsers. Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape's Navigator were the two popular Web browsers during the 1990s and early 2000s. Web browsers are the essential link between end-users and a vast sea of static pictures, video, sounds, and text. Said differently, they also enable buyers and sellers of goods and services to engage in electronic commerce.

Because of the Web, consumers and companies began to engage in electronic commerce during the 1990s. After an initial boom, some Internet companies folded or watched their stock value drop in the early 2000s. However, the Web's impact on the economy has been significant. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the digital economy was a critical factor in the United States' economic growth during the mid-to-late 1990s, accounting for one third of the nation's real economic growth during that period, according to Nua Internet Surveys. The growth of e-commerce exceeded the U.S. Department of Commerce's projections during this period, according to Nua. Furthermore, the department predicted "that almost half of all U.S. workers will work in industries that either produce IT products or use IT products extensively by 2006.

According to Global Cosmetic Industry, "During first quarter 2000, shoppers spent $7 billion at e-commerce sites—merely the tip of the iceberg considering these sales generated an estimated $13.8 billion in offline purchases." Citing information from eMarketer, the publication also noted that e-commerce sales were expected to reach $303 billion by the end of 2001.

According to data released in late 2000 from the OCLC Web Characterization Project, at that time the Web consisted of 7.1 million unique Web sites, 41 percent of which were available to the public. Twenty-one percent of sites were private (restricted to subscribers or other private parties) and the remainder (38 percent) were considered provisional sites, meaning that they were in an unfinished state. According to the project, while the Web was growing at a rapid pace, growth was occurring more slowly than in past years. Additionally, the amount of private or restricted content was increasing.

Because of its very nature, the Web holds strong potential for international e-commerce. According to data from Jupiter Research reported in Information-Week, by 2005 75 percent of the world's Web market is expected to live outside of the United States, compared to 45 percent in 1999. Additionally, according to International Data Corp. (IDC), total Internet spending amounted to $130.5 billion in 1999, 62 percent of which occurred in the United States. While IDC predicted total e-commerce spending would reach $1.6 trillion by 2003, the United States was expected to account for less than half of this amount ($726 billion).

Along with large companies, a growing number of small businesses also found a place on the Web. However, according to information from the 19th Annual Dun & Bradstreet Small Business Survey, reported in Community Banker, more than half of the survey's respondents indicated that the Web has not had a measurable impact on their business. Seventy-one percent of respondents indicated that e-mail was the main reason they used the Internet.

In addition to using the Web for marketing or education, companies also have incorporated other business practices into the online environment. One example is supply chain management (SCM) software, which is used to track inventories, sales, and orders. According to Network World, "retailers, distributors, and manufacturers want to share logistics information by giving trading partners and even consumers direct Web access to their SCM systems. In addition, some industries, such as grocery and apparel retailing, are starting to use shared Web-based online supply chains as hosted business-to-business exchanges." Some companies also began to integrate traditional telephone call centers—the places where customer service calls are handled or orders are taken for products or services—with Web pages and other Internet technologies like e-mail and chat rooms.