This tutorial is for people new to the WWW, or who want to review the basics.

You are using a World Wide Web browser, one of many programs that can travel the World Wide Web.

The two major web browsers are Netscape’s Navigator and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. There are others.

The World Wide Web is like a giant computer database that has been put together by many different people.

Some of the people have worked together.
Others worked individually.
Some of the people have rigorously checked their spelling, facts, etc.
Other people might be trying to trick you or might be putting up incorrect information inadvertently.

No one group or organization has control over information that is available on the World Wide Web. No one.

The World-Wide Web uses the wires of the Internet to move information from place to place.

The Internet is a computer network that reaches to every continent on the globe, and at last count, over 100 of the countries in the world. According to the Internet Society, in early 1999, there were an estimated 150 million people on the Internet world wide. The Internet is growing, and more people have access every day.

Every page on the WWW can be linked to any other page on the WWW.

This is one of the powers of the Web. Each person can do his or her own part, and we can put it all together to make a whole. I can write about my favorite James Bond movie, for instance, and you write about yours, and together we will have information about both of them. To move to another page, click on any button (usually pictures or text shown in blue). Click to see Goldfinger or Fort Knox or Countries of the World.

Click on the close box (the X in the upper right-hand corner ) to make the window go away once you are done with it.

Every page on the WWW has a unique address.

For instance, the Kentucky Virtual University URL is http://www.kyvu.org. Anyone in the world who has a WWW browser could type that address in and see the same information you do when you go to that page. (http stands for "HyperText Transfer Protocol", the way the information is moved from place to place).