Internet

The Internet (or internet) is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network ofnetworks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networkingtechnologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to supportemail.
Most traditional communications media including telephone, music, film, and television are being reshaped or redefined by the Internet, giving birth to new services such as Voice overInternet Protocol (VoIP) and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). Newspaper, book and other print publishing are adapting toWeb site technology, or are reshaped into blogging and web feeds. The Internet hasenabled and accelerated new forms of human interactions throughinstant messaging, Internet forums, and social networking. Online shopping has boomed both for major retail outlets andsmall artisans and traders.Business-to-business and financial services on the Internet affect supply chains across entire industries.
The origins of the Internet reach back to research of the 1960s, commissioned bythe United States government to build robust, fault-tolerant, and distributed computer networks. The funding of a new U.S. backbone by the National Science Foundation in the 1980s, as well as privatefunding for other commercial backbones, led to worldwide participation in the development of new networking technologies, and the merger of many networks. Thecommercialization of what was by the 1990s aninternational network resulted in its popularization and incorporation into virtually every aspect of modern human life. As of June 2012, more than 2.4 billion people—over a third of the world's...