World Wide Web
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈwɜːld ˌwaɪd ˈwɛb/
ipa: /ˈwɝld ˌwaɪd ˈwɛb/
rhymes: -ɛb
Etymology: From worldwide + web. Coined by global system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet World Wide Web and by Belgian engineer and computer scientist Robert Cailliau in a paper published on 12 November 1990 (see quotations below).
Senses: examples: text: WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project [title] […] Having a world wide web implies some solutions must be found for problems such as different access protocols and different node content formats. These issues are addressed by our proposal.
ref: [1990 November 12, Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, “WorldWideWeb: Proposal for a HyperText Project”, in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), archived from the original on 10 Nov 2020:
text: Additionally, gateways exist so that WAIS users can retrieve information from non-WAIS data bases like Gopher, developed by university users of Next computers, and the World Wide Web, which makes available physicists' research from many locations.
ref: 1993 February 28, John Markoff, “A web of networks, an abundance of services”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2020, page 8:
text: Anxiety about the World Wide Web tends to center on its excesses, on the overabundance of information, the overstimulation of graphics and gimmicks, the multiplicity of links.
ref: 2000, Jodi Dean, “Webs of Conspiracy”, in Andrew Herman, Thomas Swiss, editors, The World Wide Web and Contemporary Cultural Theory, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Routledge, →ISBN, page 63:
text: Although the Internet has long been used to communicate a wealth of information, it was the rise of the World Wide Web, beginning in 1994, that led to the Internet's most rapid growth and acceptance as a medium of commerce. The Web can be thought of as the Internet's popular "multimedia" segment and is a primary platform for electronic commerce.
ref: 2003, Julian S. Millstein, Jeffrey D. Neuburger, Jeffrey P. Weingart, “Introduction to the Internet”, in Doing Business on the Internet (Intellectual Property Law Series), New York, N.Y.: Law Journal Press, →ISBN, § 1.03 (The World Wide Web), page 1-6.4:
text: Consider for a moment that the Internet is about 40 years old, the microelectronics explosion happened only 30 years ago, the desktop computer appeared only about 25 years ago, the World Wide Web is really only a little more than a decade old, and that ubiquitous wireless Internet access is only now becoming a reality. Despite only relatively recent developmental history, we are facing an information explosion on the World Wide Web, making it necessary to build a better Web—an Intelligent Web—that will help users easily realize their information and communication needs.
ref: 2008, Rajendra Akerkar, Pawan Lingras, “Introduction to Web Intelligence”, in Building an Intelligent Web: Theory and Practice, Sudbury, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Publishers, →ISBN, section 1.1 (Historical Perspective), page 1:
synonyms: Web
web
W3
WWW
glosses: Usually preceded by the: all of the hypertext documents (web pages) on the Internet collectively, which are (1) stored in various inter-hyperlinked computers around the world, and (2) retrieved typically by means of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) or (currently more often) its secure version (HTTPS), among others.
Derived terms: Wood Wide Web
Related terms: Web 2.0
Web 3.0