The Internet and Web Browsers

You may be an expert user of the internet, but it never hurts to have a quick review of the way we access the web.

The graphical interface we use to access the internet is the browser. There are a range of internet/web browsers that you can choose to use instead of, or as well as, the one that comes with the computer or mobile device that you have. 

Whichever one you choose to use, please ensure that you have the most up-to-date version for security and consistency, otherwise you may find that when accessing documents these do not work in the same way from browser to browser.

The top well know internet/web browsers are:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox 
• Microsoft Edge (Windows)
• Safari (Apple)

Here's TechRadar's best browers list: 

• The best web browsers

The History of the Internet

• The internet is actually just an enormous network of computers
• The technology that would become the internet was developed in the 1960s
• The precursor to the internet was called ARPANET and was developed by the US Department of Defense in conjunction with a number of universities
• Email was unveiled as a developing tool in 1972
• In the 70s, Dr. Vinton Cerf created a common language for communicating between computers called TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
• The first webpage contained information about a new project called the "World Wide Web" started by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. This project would use hyperlinks and a user-friendly graphical interface. 

More about the history of the internet and the web:

• A Brief History of the Internet
• The Birth of the Web

Simulation/recreation of the first ever web page in 1992 (CERN)