The internet is a world with the same structure and functions as the real world. Invented and formed by the people who live in the real world, the internet is a fictional world where people benefit more or less from it, no matter which country or field they come from. Though there may be some differences in the fictional world, the core quality is the same. It is like the world of heaven or hell, which has people, land, water, fire, and plants, and all these elements are created according to the real world. People communicate, build communities, share information, establish policies, look for friends, make money, and solve actual problems in the internet world. The internet connects the whole world and offers conveniences for people in all fields. Without the internet, this online course cannot benefit many students; we cannot access information and news from other countries without the internet. The internet is a world that is built upon and serves our real world.

The working process of the internet is complicated and detailed, with terminologies similar to the working process of the human brain. It can be divided into the server-side and the browser side. The whole process includes four steps:

1. Users type a word or several words into the search bar of the browser, which enters a URL.
2. The DNS server receives the request and starts to process the input words, assigning orders to different servers to retrieve all the related data from other computers (forming the World Wide Web).
3. The server responds by sending data via the “HyperText Transfer Protocol” (HTTP), and the data are displayed as “entries” or “websites.” Sometimes the content is not a website but a PDF; in that case, the browser parses the data as HTML (HyperText Markup Language) code, and the entry shows up as a PDF-style text (Schwarzmuller, 2019).
4. Before the websites show up on the page, there are three languages used on the browser side to add color, style, and dynamic content. HTML determines the structure, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) handles the styling, and JavaScript adds dynamic content.

For internet users, search is an essential skill. People use the internet to search for all kinds of information, text, or pictures and choose the best ones to meet their requirements. I worked as a data entry professional and gained a lot of practice in searching online. My job involved finding information related to people, movies, TV programs, music, government, biology, and sports, in both English and Chinese. I had to find the best translation names and descriptions, which required filtering through numerous websites. Apart from official websites, we needed to identify the most appropriate and primary sources. One assignment involved identifying the users’ intentions based on the words or sentences they entered in the search bar. This assignment highlighted how the internet deals with data. For example, if a user inputs the word “volleyball,” there will be entries related to volleyball for sale, the definition of volleyball, how to play volleyball, etc. Through this assignment, I learned the importance of knowing what to look for when conducting a search. If I don’t know the exact thing or name, I need to figure it out before filtering the right information from the displayed websites. This approach helps me avoid the mistakes described in “How to be a better web searcher?” (Russell and Callegaro, 2019).

References

Russell, D. M. & Callegaro, M. (2019, March 26). How to be a better web searcher: Secrets from Google scientists. Observations. Retrieved from https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/how-to-be-a-better-web-searcher-secrets-from-google-scientists/

Schwarzmuller, M. (2019, April 15). How the web works. Academind. Retrieved from https://academind.com/tutorials/how-the-web-works