During the early 20th century, there was a popular ‘slogan’ heard in many parts of the world – “Workers of the World, Unite”
Whether the workers of the world united or not, today, in the early 21st century, ‘People of the World’ are uniting – almost united.
Who or what united US?
Yes, it is the same thing that is now uniting you and me right now - the Internet.
All over the world the Internet has woven the web, which is rightly called the World Wide Web. While the corporate businesses are using the Internet to expand their business, small farmers in the remote villages of India are using the Internet to look for markets for their produce.
I was a radio enthusiast during the 1960s and after when radio broadcasting was at its peak and several international broadcasts competed for space in the Short-Wave spectrum that covered from 30 MHz to 300 MHz. It was said that the International Broadcasts helped bring understanding among people from various countries. It was true. I myself earned many friends from countries located far and wide.
However, the magnitude of the Internet bringing people together is enormous when compared with International broadcasts. Perhaps, one could say the international broadcasts made a foundation, or paved the way, for the success of the Internet.
A fellow radio enthusiast went further and became a broadcaster himself. Once he told me the power of broadcast advertising. Commercial radios helped businesses to expand their areas of business and draw more customers. Again, there was a limitation to that. Listeners in one country perhaps listened to commercial broadcasts from another country. Although these people to know the names of big businesses or products in the originating country, they had no access to ‘buy’ those products from those businesses. Today, the Internet has opened many avenues to entrepreneurs and the general public alike. While businesses are able to market their products world wide, a housewife could sit in her home and earn money by doing affiliate marketing. As there is practically no limit to the market, the earning capacity has increased manifold. One can find a number of Internet marketing specialists and website marketing services sitting at home and browsing the Internet.
It is not only the business that is thriving. Internet helps in each and every characteristic of humanity. There is a gateway for all human feelings – love, devotion, kindness … even anger and hatred. “You name it, Internet has it”.
It is totally unbelievable for me that so much could be available in the Internet. In Hindu myth there is mention of a cow called ‘Kamadhenu’. It has the power of giving anything and everything that is asked for. I am now tended to believe that in those days there might have been some system like the Internet, which could have been called ‘Kamadhenu’.
Now for instance, the other day I wanted to find some old, remote information and typed the words into the Google search. I was delighted to see a list of more than five hundred sites, which contained the exact phrase.
When I was a boy, there was a neighbour who travelled extensively on business. Whenever I see him I used wonder, how this man find his whereabouts in strange places. One day I asked him. He told me that he would first go to the post office and find out the location. Today, sitting in the comfort of my home, I can find the exact spot where my daughter lives in England.
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN are popular the world over. There are hundreds of other search engines to help find the needed information. I cannot even think of using the Internet if there are no search engines and directories.
I remember, before Internet became available to the people, the famous science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clark (A Space Odyssey 2001 fame) wrote that there will come a day when each and every person in this world will be able to communicate with each other irrespective of their physical location. I think the day is not far away – or has it already come?
I am too late to say that the impact of Internet has changed the life of millions of people. Internet definitely plays a greater role in shaping human behaviour.
The most exciting aspect of the Internet, for me, is the ‘ free download ‘. There are tons of bytes waiting for download completely free. Now tell me, doesn’t this encourage humans to give away what they have in plenty?
That said, every coin has two sides. You can light a lamp with a matchstick. A whole village could be destroyed with one. It depends on how you use it.
Some websites are given here and there are many sites from which you can get help to build a website. Are you now ready to build your own web site?
As I finished writing this, my grandson prompts ‘why don’t you give a glossary of terms used in the Internet, for those new to the field? Why not?

So, here you are:
URL – Universal Resource Locator – It is like your postal address. To communicate with someone, you write the address on the envelope and post it. Here, you type the address in the address bar of your browser to view a web site or page.
Domain – A domain name is like a name of a house or an apartment building (Eg: ‘Shangri la’). Like the different file types, domain names also have different ending, like ‘com’, ‘net’, ‘org’, ‘ws’, ‘aero’ etc. Sometimes they end like ‘us’, ‘uk’ ‘nl’ ‘de’ etc. This means the domains are from a particular country. If you want to create a website, first you have to register the domain name. You can find several websites who would register the domain name for you.
Website – It is like a family. It is a group of inter-connected web pages within a domain.
Web Page – This is what you see on the screen. Web pages provide facilities to ‘navigate’ from one to another in the same domain or to another domain.
HTML – Hypertext Markup Language – This is the basic code used for writing any web page. A web page written in HTML has the file extension ‘htm’ or ‘html’.
Java – It is a language used to create special effects or to build games, etc. for web pages.
JavaScript – a language used to give dynamic elements in a web page or a form. You might have noticed in some web pages when you take the mouse pointer to certain places, some changes take place. Mostly JavaScript drives these changes.
CGI – Common Gateway Interface – Another script language used to drive interactive WebPages. They may retrieve requested information for you, or provide a shopping cart on a merchant’s website, etc. In most cases, CGI is used to communicate with a database of information.
ASP – Active Server Page – another form of web page that uses script language to drive interactivity with a site visitor. Like CGI, Active Server Pages are used to communicate with a database of information.
Terms like E-mail, Chatting, Spam, eBook, eZine are well known and need no explanation.
I was using codes during my amateur radio days like QRK, QSO, QTH - most of which borrowed from the earlier Q-code of Morse Telegraphy, and codes like 73s, YL, XYL used in voice conversatins. Now I see a new set of short codes used mostly in chat rooms. Here are some that I know of.
BRB…. Be Right Back
Cool…. Happy
FAQ…. Frequently Asked Questions
LOL. …Laughing out loud
OK, now that you know something more about the Internet and a short glimpse of the past, my friend, you are ready to test the power of the Internet. Cool!