The Internet in a Nutshell.

In our new technological world, the use of internet websites and proper navigation is more important than it was ten years ago.  Job applications, shopping, researching, and reviewing are all necessities on the internet now.  Before the internet the paper and pen industries ran the world.  You don’t seem to see that many people walking around with a pen in their pocket because they can access the website from their smartphones.  For those that are not that strong in internet terminology and use, this is the blog for you.

There are a lot of terms that are associated with the internet that you may or may not know about.  According to http://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit07/internet07_02.phtml it was a means of government researchers to communicate in the 1960’s.  On January 1, 1983, the internet as we know it started to form a little more.  The computers of the 1960’s were large, bulky structures and by the 1980’s they started to be more ergonomic for home use.

In our society today, we rely on the internet for a lot of communication.  Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media site, we rely on the information super highway to communicate with friends and family around the world.  The use of these social media sites are creating new words that could need some simplistic explanations,

A wiki is defined at https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=wiki+definition as ” a website that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by its users.”  Places like Wikipedia uses user information for its website.  One of the issues with a site like this is the fact that it is run by the users.  This may take away some of the legitimacy of the information.  To combat that, Wikipedia allows all users to edit the information of a specific topic and rewrite the information.

Social networking sites are on the rise.  What is good about a social network is the ability to communicate live, connect with people, and allow users to make and maintain relationships.  According to http://www.digitaltrends.com/features/the-history-of-social-networking/ the father site of the modern social networking site is called http://www.sixdegrees.com.  This was the first websit to allow users to generate their own profiles, search profiles, invite friends, and maintain relationships.  Developed in 1997 the company folded when it “encouraged” users to invite more people onto the website.  The company soon folded around the turn of the century and opened the door for more social media sites to take over.

Email is electronic mail that is sent like regular mail.  Instead of a mailbox on the side of the road, there is a mailbox built into the program.  The idea is that a person can send a message from one computer to the other through a server, or central point, where it is sorted and sent to another email address.  According to http://www.vicomsoft.com/learning-center/history-of-email/ the use of “electronic mail” could have been traced all the way back to the days of the telegraph.  The modern email appearance took off in 1995 and has exploded since than.  Companies like AOL, Compuserv, Yahoo, and now Google are free websites for email.  The email business is taken off and allows communication worldwide in a matter of moments.

A podcast is another form of a communication tool.  https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=definition+of+a+podcast defines a podcast as:  nounpodcast; plural noun: podcasts.  1.  A digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or portable media player, typically available as a series, new installments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.  Verb – podcast; 3rd person present: podcasts; gerund or present participle: podcasting; past tense: podcast; past participle: podcast.   1.  make (a digital audio file) available as a podcast.   Podcasts are an important communication tool as it includes both audio and visual references to assist in the matter.  A lot of people use a podcast as an extension of a radio show to get more stronger opinions in a specific subject that may not be acceptable for public radio.

A webcast is almost identical to a podcast, that is a web based audio visual reference, but a webcast cannot be downloaded in the same sense that a podcast could.  According to http://www.pasoroblesfilmfestival.com/westwebdesign.htm, the first example of a webcast was in 1995 by Benford E. Standley.  Most people may not have known that.  A webcast could be something like a football game or a fashion show and could even be online only movies.

Streaming media is now a popular form of entertainment.  Streaming media is a media file that is refreshed quickly and often to produce the image.  http://www.dacast.com/blog/the-history-of-live-streaming/ explains that one of the first examples of streaming media was founded in the 1920’s by the Muzak company… yes, the same company that plays music in stores like Walmart and Target.  This type of media soon exploded to allow companies like the NFL and MLB to live stream their games to out of market fans.

The final point to make is e and m commerce websites.  With the addition of Apple and Android pay and the explosion of Amazon.com and other sites it is important to know about these sites.  Online shopping id growing in leaps and bounds and there is no real way to track the numbers as there are multiple tiers in the e commerce world.  Some sites report gains of over 250% according to https://rjmetrics.com/resources/reports/2015-ecommerce-growth-benchmark/.

The internet is still not where it can be.  Throughout the years expect your mom and dads internet to change more.  This will allow more information to be used and shared and be even more interactive then anything we have seen before.  The great thing about technology is it will always have the ability to be changed and improved more and more.  The sky is the limit when it comes to a lot of things that the internet can offer and through the couurse of time we will see and do it all.blog image2

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