Many people use the terms Internet and World Wide Web interchangeably, but the two terms are not the same as a matter of fact. The World Wide Web refers to a huge set of interlinked documents, images and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. These hyperlinks and URLs allow the web servers and other machines that store originals, and cached copies of, these resources to deliver them as required using HTTP. HTTP is only one of the communication protocols used on the Internet. Web services also use HTTP to allow software systems to communicate in order to share and exchange business logic and data.

Softwares on the other hand that can access the resources on the Web are appropriately called user agents. Examples are web browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Apple Safari, which access web pages and allow users to navigate from one to another via hyperlinks. Web documents may contain almost any combination of computer data including graphics, sounds, text, video, multimedia and interactive content including games, office applications and scientific demonstrations. Keyword-driven Internet research using search engines like Yahoo! and Google make it easy for millions of people worldwide to have easy, instant access to a vast and diverse amount of online information. Whereas encyclopedias and traditional libraries limit access to financial and geographic considerations, the World Wide Web has enabled an explosion of decentralized information and data that can be accessed for a fraction of the cost.

Content production has also been on the rise. It has become easier than ever before for individuals and organisations to produce content in the form of ideas and information to an audience that are across the world. Publishing a web page, a blog or build a website is now possible for a very little initial outlay. Although, going to full-blown publishing and maintaining large, professional websites remain to be a relatively expensive enterprise. In places where internet use is high, many individuals and even some companies and groups use "web logs" or blogs. Blogs are easily updatable online diaries. Many commercial organisations promote blogging to their staff as a way of reaching out to visitors that are looking for expert knowledge and free information, and be attracted to the corporation as a result. Microsoft is a leading example, whose product developers publish their personal blogs in order to give the general public a peek into their work, and consequently, an interest on the company.

Personal web pages published by large service providers remain popular, and through the years have become increasingly more sophisticated, popular and easy to use. Angelfire and GeoCities have been mainstays since the early days of the Web. But currently, Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, Multiply and Twitter have gained mass followings. But rather than merely web page hosts, they have become more of social network service providers. Advertising on popular web pages have also become lucrative money making ventures. Not to mention that e-commerce which means the sale of products and services directly via the Web continues to grow.

During the internet’s early days, web pages were usually created as sets of complete and isolated HTML text files stored on a web server. More recently, websites are more often created using content management or wiki software with, initially, very little content. Systems contributors, usually paid staff, members of a club or other organisation or members of the public, fill underlying databases with content using editing pages designed for that purpose. Casual visitors view and read this content in its final HTML form. Editorial, review, approval and security systems built into the process of taking newly entered content and making it available to the target visitors may not be present in most cases.