Getting Your Hands on the Info

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While the Internet provides us with the capability to access large amounts of varied information, historically the Internet has not made the access to the information easy. How to provide easy, universal access to Internet resources is a question that the pioneers of the Internet have struggled with for some time.

Early attempts for standard methods of information access led to the creation of protocols, or rules, that dictated how one was to get the information one needed. Client software that used these protocols was created, and was usually given the name of the protocol it used, for example, Telnet and FTP.

Jargon:

Protocol�rules that dictate how you get the information you want from the Internet.

At first, this Internet access software was not very user-friendly and was only used by people who were very knowledgeable about computers. As time went on Internet users, tried to find ways to make it even easier to find and retrieve Internet information, which led to the development of Internet software systems with catchy names, such as Gopher, Veronica, and Jughead.


These program too had flaws. They only provided a way to locate the information, not access it. You often still had to use the old Internet client software to actually retrieve the information once you found it. Hence, the World Wide Web, a development that would forever change the face of the Internet, was born.. The Web enables users with the most rudimentary computing skills to use the Internet effectively.