Uses of the Internet

The Internet has been perhaps the most outstanding innovation in the field of communication in the history of mankind. Man has come a long way from his evolution journey to the present day. Because of his continued quest for more and more amenities and facilities, the nineties have seen a major turnaround with the invention of computers. Ten years ago, the term ‘internet’ was practically unknown to most of the people, and today, the internet has become the most powerful tool for man throughout the world. We can’t imagine life without it now. It has revolutionized and cased up our life in many ways.

Modern life and business has become easier and the world markets have shrunk, thanks to the immense contribution of the internet technology to communication and information sharing. However, this internet technology was not created overnight. In its initial stages of creation, it facilitated communication within certain specific network stations through a central mainframe method.

Eventually, internet operations in which multiple networks could be connected together were made possible (could be performed). From here on internet service providers that were privately owned, allowing for expansion and use of this technology and it has had a tremendous impact all over the world.

Although many people still think e-mail and World Wide Web are the principal constituents of the internet, there is a lot more in store than e-mail, chat rooms, celebrity websites and search engines. It has also become the best business tool in the modern scenario. Today internet has brought the globe into a single room. Right from news across the corners of the world, a wealth of knowledge to shopping, purchasing the tickets for your favourite movie – everything is just a click away. Thus internet has a great potential and a lot to offer.

Information is probably the biggest advantage internet is offering. Websites dedicated to different subjects and large amounts of articles, papers and pictures are available for perusal in a matter of a few seconds. Various search engines like google.com, yahoo.com, attavista.com, search.com and ask.com are at your service on the internet. You can almost find any kind of information on any topic. Under the sun known to man. Ranging from government laws and services, trade fairs and conferences, market information, new ideas and technical support, the list is endless. Students and children are among the top users who surf the internet for research. Almost every coming day, researches on medical issues have become much easier to locate. During 1998 over 20 million people were reported going online to retrieve health information.

The foremost target of the internet has always been communication. Now we can communicate in a fraction of a second with a person sitting in any other part of the world via chatting, video conferencing, e-mail and internet telephony, etc. With such services, it has become easy to establish the kind of global friendship where one can share thoughts and can explore other cultures of different ethnicity via Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

The internet has also revolutionized the entertainment industry. There is now no need to stand in a queue in a cinema to get tickets. You can watch your favourite movie online. You now have companies offering their services in which you can just download or order your favourite movie. Likewise, you can download music, videos, games, and other important software in a few seconds.

Shopping has also got a complete makeover with the internet. Many websites sell a variety of products online and one just needs to select or bid for the product and the entire financial transaction can be done with e-banking, the Transfer of money is no longer a time-consuming process.

The facility of online education is a major blessing of the internet. Websites of different universities provide lectures and tutorials on different subjects or topics. One can also download these lectures or tutorials into the P.C. and get one’s queries answered by the experts online. Results of the examinations are also offered on the internet by most of the universities these days,

Apart from these many airline companies and Railways provide their schedules of flights and trains respectively on the internet. One can get the latest news and read the latest editions of magazines on the net. These are updated periodically. The Internet has also helped in the job search. Most of the organizations around the world advertise their vacancies on the internet. The search engines are also used to search the jobs and one can apply for the required job through the internet only.

In spite of the innumerable facilities that it provides us, the Internet like any other technology is similar to a Pandora’s Box and contains some unwanted elements like security problems, spamming, filtration of information, immorality, etc. But the responsibility lies not with the internet but with the users who should use this innovation of science and technology for constructive purposes.