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Internet 101 was created for those who want to know just the basics. This guide will provide you with enough knowledge to have fun on the Internet, yet will not bore you with too many details.
Think of this as a set of instructions…for people who don’t like to read instructions!
Our popular online guide is available in a “Print Your Own” version. It contains all the information from the online guide without the advertising. This 49 page version is useful for anyone who wants to get the most from their Internet experience but prefers reading off paper instead of a computer screen.
Let’s get started by learning the basics of the Internet.
The Internet has been around for about 25 years. Here are ten of the events that got us where we are today:
The World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee created user-friendly “Web pages” that could travel over the Internet, a network built to shuttle research between universities. The world logged on: 747 million adults in January.
E-mail
Tech’s answer to the Pony Express . Programs such as 1988’s Eudora made it easy to use. In-boxes have been filling up ever since. Nearly 97 billion e-mails are sent each day.
3Graphical user interface (GUI)
Most computer displays were blinking lines of text until Apple featured clickable icons and other graphic tools in its 1984 Mac. Microsoft’s Windows took GUI — pronounced “gooey” — to the masses.
AOL
AOL turned people on to Web portals, chat rooms and instant messaging. Early subscribers paid by the hour. AOL once boasted 35 million subscribers. It bought Time Warner for $106 billion in 2001.
Mosaic/Netscape
Created by Marc Andreessen and others, Mosaic was the first widely-used multimedia Web browser. Spin-off Netscape Navigator ruled the ‘90s until Microsoft’s Internet Explorer took off around ‘98.
Yahoo!
Stanford University graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo created this popular Web portal in 1994. It remains a favorite for email, photo sharing (it owns Flickr) and other services.
eBay
Thanks to eBay, we can all now buy and sell almost anything (skip the body parts). eBay has 230 million customers worldwide who engage in 100 million auctions at any given time.
Amazon.com
Jeff Bezos’ baby began as an always-in-stock book seller. It survived the tech bubble and now is the definitive big box online store. It was the second most-visited online retailer in December, after eBay.
Instant Messaging
LOL! Web surfers began to “laugh out loud” and BRB (“be right back”) in the mid-‘90s, with the launch of ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger. Millions use it to swap messages and photos, even telephone pals.
Broadband
The answer to the drip-drip-drip of dial-up, high-speed Internet service fuels online entertainment. About 78% of home Internet users in the U.S. have broadband, up from less than 1% in 1998.
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“Internet 101: A well-organized overview uses simple language to explain all basic concepts of the Internet. The site can serve as a primary source for students, providing a solid and easy-to-understand foundation for the beginner…”
- Yahoo!
“Internet 101 is one of the best sites for parents, grandparents and, yes, even kids to learn about the Internet and how it works.”
- WABC-TV New York
“Internet 101 contains all you need to know about the Web, viruses, newsgroups, how to chat, how to search.”
- AT&T Labs
