User:ComradeSlice/A Web of Ignorance

A spectre is haunting the Web -- the spectre of ignorance. For too long have I seen articles on the Web that use very different terms interchangeably. These terms are "Internet" and "Web".

What's the difference?
There is a huge difference between the Internet and the Web. This is without saying that they don't have anything to do with each other. The Web depends on the Internet.

Let's say you are browsing the Web from your MacBook Pro. You are using the Web over the Internet through a WiFi connection. See the info box for a visual representation of how this would work.

The World Wide Web is an application on the Internet. A pipe is to water as the Internet is to the Web.

Terminology Hell
Journalists always fall ill to the ignorance of the masses to confuse Internet terms and Web terms. Here is a table of common Web and Internet terms with examples and which family they belong in.

The term "website suffix" is completely incorrect. The proper term is "top level domain". The last part of a typical domain name is always a top level domain such as,  ,  , and others. They are not suffixes. Think of top level domains as trunks, and second/third level domains as branches. Most registered domain names are on the second level (e.g. ), but some top level domains only allow registration on the third level (e.g.  ).

Offenders
Here is a list of articles on the Web that use incorrect terminology, their authors, and the publication. You can add to this table to improve the accuracy of tech journalists everywhere!