To even begin imagining the future of the internet and the web, it is important to know the history of each. It is impossible to chart a trajectory without knowing both where something started and where it currently is. Since both the internet and the web are such integral parts of life in the 21st century, it is important to know where they are taking us. 

First, we should draw a distinction between the internet and the web. Though the two are often conflated, they are distinct entities. The internet is hardware — a physical way of connecting networks of computers. The word itself is derived from “internetwork” (meaning “a network of networks”), since it is really a network made up of nearly innumerable smaller networks. It may help to think of the internet as a digital version of a system of interstate highways, state highways, and roads. The web, on the other hand, is software made up of the websites you visit. If the internet is a system of roadways, the web is the gas stations, shopping malls, libraries, museums, and other sites you visit. Completing that analogy, your web browser is the car you drive along the roadways to visit those sites.

As such, it is possible to use the internet without using the web, but it is not possible to use the web without using the internet. When you use an app (such as Outlook or K9) on your computer or phone to send and receive emails, those messages travel over the internet (hardware), but you are not using the web (software), since you are not actually visiting a website. From the above, it is easy to see that, just as roads precede gas stations, shopping malls, libraries, museums, etc., the internet precedes the web. 

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