The Internet has exploded in the last two years thanks to the invention
of the so-called ``browser.'' A browser is a point-and-click software
program that allows ``surfers'' to navigate around the Internet without
knowing any Unix commands. The first browser was developed by the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), a government
agency. It is called Mosaic and can be downloaded for free off the
Internet. Since then other companies have popped up to develop
commercial browsers; Netscape Communications Corporation has snatched
up the most market share so far (nearly 65%). With a browser and access
to the Internet, you can order a pizza, listen to and purchase a CD,
stroll through the Louvre, or view satellite photographs of Scotland.
Search tools allow you to find all the florists on the Internet, and
hypertext links enable hopping from one location to another. One second
you are in Omaha, the next in Tokyo.
Browsers have introduced graphics to the Internet interface. Anyone who
wants to share information about themselves over the Internet can
create a personal ``home page'' with pictures of themselves and their
pets, for instance, or biographical information, or a list of their
favorite Internet sites. The World Wide Web is a body of documents
connected through hypertext links, so that home pages can have
references to other home pages, and a simple click of the mouse on a
highlighted word or name takes you to another document dealing with
that subject. Companies can use home pages as store fronts, displaying
company information, descriptions of upcoming products, or catalogs
with pictures of actual products, complete with order forms.
Although it may get congested from time to time, the Internet itself is
extremely reliable. It was developed by the Department of Defense in
the late 60s to establish a communication vehicle that would survive
nuclear war. Internet transfer protocols route information around
breakdowns in the network. There isn't actually any one network that is
the Internet; it's made up of thousands of networks that connect to
each other through common routers, and they all agree to carry each
others' traffic. A number of different access providers and phone
companies have set up backbone service to carry Internet traffic
between the major routers. There is a lot of money flowing up from
local access providers to these national players, guaranteeing that the
infrastructure will continue to expand to meet demand.
Because so many resources are shared, the Internet is also very
efficient. It costs a lot less to connect a business to the Internet
than to lease telephone lines that customers dial into with their
modems. Long-distance transactions take place with no long-distance
charges. It will probably never be cost-effective to measure an
Internet user's activity based on volume and distance of transactions,
so most likely Internet users will continue to be charged for the size
of the ``pipe'' connecting them to the Internet.
Businesses of all types are setting up shop on the Internet to take
advantage of this new distribution channel and customer base. Whereas
the Internet had been reserved for the research and education
communities until recently, the arrival of commercially operated
backbone networks has opened the way for commercial use. The number of
commercial entities with an Internet presence has doubled in the last
three months. Currently, twenty-five million Americans have Internet
access. Two million of these have browsers; Microsoft's Windows 95 will
include a built-in browser. Prodigy and CompuServe have recently added
browsers to their list of services, and America Online will soon
follow. Internet usage is growing at over fifteen percent a month.
The amount of information that can be exchanged and the speed with
which it appears on the computer screen depend on the speed of the
connection to the Internet, whether that is a modem or an ISDN line.
Computer stores are selling 28.8K modems for $225 today, which are
15-20 times faster (with compression) than the standard 2400-baud modem
on the market five years ago. Modems will keep getting faster, allowing
more information, better graphics, and full-motion video to be
downloaded more easily. However, in five years most households will
probably buy their Internet access from their cable company, who will
provide them with a 10 megabit-per-second connection through their
cable wire. A 10-MB connection would download in one second a file that
takes a 28.8K modem five and a half minutes to download.