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Developed by researchers at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, the World-Wide Web is somewhat similar to a WAIS. But it's designed on a system known as hypertext. Words in one document are "linked" to other documents. It's sort of like sitting with an encyclopedia -- you're reading an article, see a reference that intrigues you and so flip the pages to look up that reference.
To take a walk on The Web try the WWW's (or W3 in the project's own jargon), default telnet site:
www.w3.org
No log in is needed. When you connect, you'll see something like:
Overview of the Web
GENERAL OVERVIEW
There is no "top" to the World-Wide Web. You can look at it from many points
of view. If you have no other bias, here are some places to start:
by Subject[1] A classification by subject of interest. Incomplete
but easiest to use.
by Type[2] Looking by type of service (access protocol, etc) may
allow to find things if you know what you are looking
for.
About WWW[3] About the World-Wide Web global information sharing
project
Starting somewhere else
To use a different default page, perhaps one representing your field of
interest, see "customizing your home page"[4].
What happened to CERN?
1-6, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help:
Ok. Now type `3', and get the following screen:
The World Wide Web project
WORLD WIDE WEB
The WorldWideWeb (W3) is a wide-area hypermedia[1] information retrieval
initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents.
Everything there is online about W3 is linked directly or indirectly to this
document, including an executive summary[2] of the project, an illustrated
talk[3] , Mailing lists[4] , Policy[5] and Conditions[6] , May's W3 news[7]
, Frequently Asked Questions[8] .
What's out there?[9] Pointers to the world's online information,
subjects[10] , W3 servers[11] , etc.
WWW Software Products[12]
What there is and how to get it: clients, servers and
tools.
Technical[13] Details of protocols, formats, program internals etc
Bibliography[14] Paper documentation on W3 and references. Also:
manuals[15] .
1-20, Back, Up, <RETURN> for more, Quit, or Help:
You navigate the web by typing the number next to a given reference. So if you want to know more about the web, hit 2. This is another system that bears playing with.
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