The Internet :: Web Technology Essays

The Internet When the Internet was developed in the 1960s, most of the world was unaware of the impact it would have on the world and our society within a relatively short period of time. In less than forty years, the World Wide Web has literally become the "Information Super Highway" as Al Gore so succinctly named it (Daly, 1998). With this massive influx of information through a web of interconnected networks have come problems and some solutions. The magnitude of data stored on the Web and the Internet brings about many questions regarding readability, currency, policies, validity, quality, reliability, moral issues, creditability, market appeal, and adequacy in the mechanics of language just to name a few. Except in technologically advanced circles of society, the Web was virtually unheard of prior to the wide availability of the Mosaic browser in 1993. At that time, the Web emerged nearly full-blown and was so successful that within a few months it was being used by millions of people (Maddux, 1998). As a result of this rapid growth of the Web, the quality of many websites today is poor. Maddux (1998) states that "standards for academic and other publishing of traditional media, like books, evolved over a period of centuries while the technical and distribution problems were being solved". The Web has not been afforded the luxury of having the component of time to develop standards for the information being published. Maddux (1998) believes that "Web quality seems to be declining, rather than improving". Often when a person searches for information through a Web search engine, he is inundated with incompetent web pages. It is difficult, time-consuming, frustrating, overwhelming, a nd sometimes impossible for an internet novice to find useful information. In turn, those using the web for educational fulfillment have to jump barriers just to find high-quality information. To remedy the problems with the Web, some guidelines need to be set forth and followed. Authors of web sites need to proofread and revise material for language and mechanics much as if they were writing a paper for their English class to be graded by a teacher. Web site authors should use common sense in deciding what and when to publish and should keep the published material up-to-date. Just as students should not turn in an unfinished assignment to a teacher, the author of a website should not publish unfinished pages or pages under construction.