How the Internet Works

by Ken Bryski

Do you know how the Internet works? For a while I was really surprised just how little people really understand about the workings of the Internet.

Now I'm not talking about how code is written or what actually takes place deep in the bowels of a search engine.

Have you ever really thought about what is actually taking place when you search the Internet for information about something you are interested in? Where the information comes from and how it actually reaches you. Who's responsible for creating the information you find? How do you actually find what you're looking for?

I'll try and help you understand what's actually happening when you search and why you find what you do.

What Is The Internet?

The Internet is a collection of computer files containing information stored on networks of computers around the world connected by cable. These computers files are all joined by links on webpages. The links are actually coordinates of the location of a particular file. The words in the link should convey what you'll find if you click on that link and open that particular file.

When the Internet was first invented by Al Gore (not), humans actually investigated the destinations of links and evaluated the information contained in the file. They recorded the location, gave a short title and a brief description of what you would find. This information was placed on a list with other files of similar information. A collection of lists were kept in a directory.

But, as a searcher, you would have to trust that the person evaluating the file would rate it the same as you would or else their opinion wasn't very valuable. So people would have a favorite directory that they would search. Yahoo, DMOZ, and Go.com were a few of the first directories.

The files or webpages on the Internet back then were created by the true geeks of the world and they had a tremendous leg up on everyone else just beginning to learn about the web.

The Internet Soon Became Unmanageable

As the web began growing, the people managing the directories became overwhelmed by the enormity of the task rating all the new webpages coming in waves everyday. The evaluations started getting sloppy and the actual users of the directories, you and me who were searching for things, started getting p---ed off.

The directories started asking webmasters, the people who write the content for webpages, to help them by taking charge of certain areas of the directory. In the beginning this worked well, the titles and descriptions that were written became more accurate and descriptive.

Searchers became happier, the webmasters were happy, and the Internet continued to swell. But, now the keepers of the gate started manipulating their own little areas of the directory and began listing their own websites at the top of the lists. Competitors wouldn't be allowed in. It started to become a closed shop.

But who is the Internet really for? The webmaster or the searcher? Lets think about it...the searcher makes a request, gets a result and is happy or mad. The webmaster writes a page and places it on the net. What is the webmasters goal? Why is he creating a webpage in the first place? What's in it for him?

Unless the person is just really nice and has a lot of knowledge he absolutely has to share, there's really no point in putting anything on the Internet unless you have a reason or goal in mind.

So obviously, the webmaster has motives beyond the quest for knowledge about a particular subject. If the searcher isn't happy with the quality of the material he finds with his search he has to look somewhere else.

Search Engines Arrived to Save the Internet

Some real smart guys started coming out of university and they developed smarter computer programs that could look at certain elements contained within a webpage and determine what that page was actually about.

The computer programs became so powerful they could evaluate millions of these pages every day. These computer programs called Search Engines soon became the way to find information quickly and accurately.

The search engines were always developed to try and deliver the best content for the searcher, not what a single human decided was important. If the search engine couldn't deliver, the searcher moved to the next one. They were springing up almost daily.

Now the webmasters couldn't control where their page would rank in search engine results unless they could get the criteria that the engines wanted correct. It soon became a game of manipulation that many people wanted to play. But, it was a game that couldn't be won. It just continued, with the search engines writing more and more convoluted rules or algorithms to combat the unscrupulous webmasters.

Now is Social Media Having a Say?

Today, we see websites like Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites starting to gain on Google who has been the giant for about 7 years. Facebook seems to be going back to the old way of doing things with their like button. Getting humans to decide what's important...by the number of likes something receives. I think you'll soon see companies begging you to like them on Facebook...