The Internet, in case you didn't know

This is how I would explain the Internet to an intelligent recluse who has been in hiding since the beginning:

All computers are linked to access the same information. They were originally linked by dialing a phone number, upon whence your computer would screech tones that were translated into information, and the information was thusly transferred through the phone line and connected you to other people doing the same thing. Now, we transmit information faster through dedicated data lines. Once connected, you can type in an address to visit a website. A website is any place on the internet (also called a page) you can visit if you know the address. You could access any website on the World Wide Web (another name for the Internet) and you can also make one for other people to access.

If you don't know an address for a site (the address also being called a URL, for Uniform Resource Locator), there are some sites (most popularly Google) where you can search for a site or browse to find the best site to fit your needs. Sites usually are prefaced by typing the following:

http://www

After the three w's and a period, you typically type in the name of the site. Google, for instance, is http://www.google.com. The" .com "afterwards indicates that you are visiting a commercial address. Other things that appear after the period are "edu" (for education) or "net" (for internet). Since you can't make a space in an internet address (or URL), periods are typically used to indicate a stopping point between words or parts of the address.

Besides getting information, you can also send "mail," known as electronic mail, or email, to communicate. As long as you know someone's email address, you can send them a note. Email addresses usually begin with something that the user chooses, often their name. After the part they choose there is an @ symbol, then the company name that hosts their email. After the company name, there is another period, and usually com, because the company that sponsors the email is commercial. My email is my first name, then a period, then my last name, @gmail.com, for instance. Email address and websites are not case sensitive, so upper and lower case letters are not distinguishable.

Websites exist for many purposes. You can make a page with your basic personal info on a commercial site (mostly popularly http://www.Myspace.com, for instance) with the sole purpose of connecting with other users. Make a list of addresses of interesting sites and store the list on a website, and get to all these sites by directly clicking (using a mouse) on the address. The address will typically be underlined and in blue text to let you know that the text is linked to another site. That's why these instances of underlined blue text are called "links." Make a page for your business. Sell your products online in the global market- just tell your customers what you have available, and make a form they can fill out with their credit card information. Don't worry- many customers shop frequently online and are comfortable with giving you their credit card information. Once you get an order, ship out (or email) your good or service. In fact, you can buy and sell books, groceries, stocks, memberships to certain websites, or anything else you can think of on the web. Meet your future mate by joining a dating site that calculates compatibility using complicated mathematical algorithms. Got another idea for expanding the Internet? I bet you can put it on a website, get the word out, and chances are that it will catch on!