1.3 The Internet, Cloud Computing, and the Internet of Things

The Internet: From Inception to Today

The internet as we know it today originated in the 1960s with the idea of using a traditional telephone switching circuit to wirelessly connect computers in a network. The telephone system would allow these computers to communicate with one another, exchange data, and run shared programs. Researchers and engineers from both the public and the private sector came together to form the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to investigate ways the U.S. military could improve communications, with the goal of protecting the country from unexpected enemy attacks.

In 1969, a new digital packet switching technology was introduced to enable two computers to communicate with each other, replacing the telephone circuit technology. Packet switching happens when computers break down data or information into smaller groups (packets) and transmit several of those packets over the network. When the packets reach the destination computer, they are put back together in their original form. The communication occurred through the traditional phone line system but was transformed into digital data during transmission. The packet technology did not require a dedicated telephone line to network the computers together. This was the origin of the ARPA Network, or ARPANET, and is the same technology used today for the internet. The networked computers were also able to send simple messages to one another, setting the stage for email as we know it today. Figure 1.22 shows an early iteration of the ARPA network.

Figure 1.22 In the 1970s, ARPA’s network consisted of a series of nodes (connectors) and lines that stretched across the continental United States. (credit: modification of “Arpanet 1974” by Yngvar/Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain)

In less than five years, the network expanded to include thirty different organizations and institutions across the world, and by 1975, ARPA determined that it needed to establish standards for consistency. These rules helped ensure that the interconnected network, or internet, was secure and efficient. The transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) was established to standardize the computer language used between the computers in the network. With these rules, a unique internet protocol address (IP address) allowed users to determine the geographic location of any computer on the network. The IP address was also used to direct the transmitted information to the appropriate destination. Because the IP address is a series of numbers and decimal points that can be hard to remember, the domain name system (DNS) was developed in 1983 to convert IP addresses into simple names. The DNS thus became the phone book for the internet, enabling users to send a message using their name, the symbol @, and the location of the computer as identified by its domain name. With the DNS, the foundation of the World Wide Web (WWW) was put into place. The term internet simply refers to the interconnected computers, a network that now extends across the world. The WWW is the content that has been collected over the internet and is available online. By 1981, the network had grown to over 200 hosts. The first domain name was registered in 1985 to a computer manufacturer.

By the mid-1980s, scientists and researchers across the world were working on computer networking technology. With the success of the ARPANET, the ARPA group was charged with working on other, more cutting-edge projects. The ARPANET-connected organizations were predominantly government entities or educational research centers; the system was not available for commercial or personal use. Consequently, the project was moved to the U.S. Department of Defense, where the network continued to expand through various branches, including NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF). In 1985, the NSF created the structure for a supercomputing center to connect colleges and universities, research centers, and regional networks. By the end of the 1980s, this network had grown to over 30,000 hosts. As a result, ARPANET was decommissioned in 1990.

In 1989, the first dial-up internet service provider (ISP) was established, allowing commercial access to the internet. The term dial-up internet emerged to describe how users would use existing telephone technology to “dial up” internet access through a specific provider. Because the internet was established primarily for military use, access to the technology was highly restricted, limited to specific uses such as research. By 1992, Congress had allowed the NSF to grant some access to the network for uses beyond education and research. Then, in 1995, all restrictions on noncommercial uses of the internet were lifted.

In these early days, a good deal of computer knowledge was needed in order to use the network, so the internet was not yet part of mainstream life. But that was about to change. In 1990, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), hypertext markup language (HTML), and the uniform resource locator (URL) were developed to give the average person access to the web of information. This really was the birth of the World Wide Web. HTML provides the structure on which web pages are based; it is a series of commands that describe attributes such as the font size and background colors of the displayed page. The uniform resource locator (URL) is an address—similar to a postal address—that directs the user to a unique location or page on the World Wide Web. These two developments, along with the milestones shown in Figure 1.23 made the web less technically complex and easier for the average person to navigate.

People soon began to see the ease with which web pages could be created. In 1993, the first user-friendly web browser, Mosaic, came on the scene. A web browser provides the interface that you can use to search for the information stored on the WWW. Marc Andreessen, a student at the University of Illinois, developed it. One key feature of Mosaic was the ability to include images as well as text on a web page. Other features included buttons to select for navigating the page, the ability to include video clips, and hyperlinks. A hyperlink is a link that can take the user from one web page to another just by clicking the highlighted link. Initially available as a free download, Mosaic quickly caught on and evolved as more users came on board. Prior to Mosaic, fewer than 200 web pages were available, but in just a few short years by the late 1990s, that number grew to more than 100,000. After graduating, Andreessen formed Netscape Communications and would eventually launch Netscape Navigator, which would grow to over 10 million users globally in just two years. Microsoft was quick to respond with its browser, Internet Explorer, which was bundled with the Windows operating system.

Figure 1.23 Major milestones in the creation of the internet came in layers.

By 1998, some big tech names established themselves as internet-based businesses—Hotmail, Amazon, Google, eBay, and Yahoo!, to name a few. The rise of the internet led to what became known as the dot-com bubble, a period when investors poured money into many internet-based ventures that promised high returns. Of course, many of these ventures failed, and their investors lost a good deal of capital. But, despite this, new ideas continued to emerge, and the internet continued to grow. Here are a few internet ventures that came out of the dot-com bubble and are still around today:

• Wikipedia—2001
• Facebook—2004
• YouTube—2005
• Twitter (now X)—2006
• Hulu—2007

Using the Internet

Using the internet today is much simpler than it was even as recently as five years ago. It simply entails going to the web browser of our choice and clicking the mouse to launch it. Common browsers in use today include Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox. The browser, once opened, will take you to where you want to go online. You can go directly to a web page by typing its URL in the navigation bar at the top of the browser. However, many browsers have a default search engine that will automatically launch when you open the browser and will allow you to search the internet for content you want to locate or research. Chrome, for example, will automatically navigate to the Google search engine when you open the Chrome program. Most browsers include a bookmark feature, and it may be helpful to bookmark/favorite pages that you visit frequently or want to remember for quick access later. With Chrome, you will see a star on the right-hand side of the URL to select to bookmark/favorite the page. Figure 1.24 shows these buttons.

Figure 1.24 To use a browser, type the website URL address into the navigation bar. Here, we’ve typed www.google.com to get to Google’s famous search page. You can also bookmark/favorite websites that you frequent for quick access by selecting the star button. (Google Search is a trademark of Google LLC.)

Conducting Effective Searches

Conducting searches on the internet is straightforward, but there are some techniques that will make your searches more effective. Because of the vast amount of information available on the internet, incorporating some simple changes to your search strategies can make a huge difference. You might, for example, want to narrow the number of results that you get from a search to those that are most relevant. When you begin to type in a search term, most engines will display a list of suggested searches. This list of suggestions will give you similar, related searches using the terms that you have begun to type into the search bar. This is often helpful as you try to narrow your search to obtain the desired results, as Figure 1.25 shows.

Figure 1.25 When you begin typing into a search engine, not just Google’s, most will offer suggested searches based on what you typed, as you can see in the list under the “flower arrangements” entry. (Google Search is a trademark of Google LLC.)

As you conduct your search, it is often helpful to keep a list of search terms that you have successfully used. It is easy to forget that you have already used a particular phrase or word, so a simple list will make it easier to avoid replicating something you have already searched.

For example, suppose your boss at WorldCorp has asked you to search for a local nonprofit organization centered on children to support this year during the holidays. You might choose to search using the word or phrase children, kids, not for profit, nonprofit, or children in need, as just a few examples.

Search engines also offer the capability to search with an image or with voice instead of text. Once you have entered a search term or phrase, you have some additional options. For example, you can restrict the search to a certain date range or a certain location, or you can change the search to focus only on shopping related to your search term. See Figure 1.26. Keep in mind that once you reach a website, you will often find a search bar within the website itself. This will enable you to search within that specific website instead of conducting a search of the entire internet. A little trick for searching on a page is to use the control (Ctrl) key and the F key at the same time (Ctrl+F). When you press these two keys at the same time, a search window will appear that allows you to search on that specific web page.

Mac Tip

To search within a web page on a Mac, type Command+F.

Figure 1.26 Using the advanced search features, you can restrict your search to a location or date range. You can also search using voice or search with an image. (Google Search is a trademark of Google LLC.)

To conduct an internet search, it is best to use specific and unique terms whenever possible. For example, when searching for contact information for a nonprofit organization in your hometown, rather than simply using the term “food bank,” you should use the actual name of the food bank you are searching. Or, if you are unsure of the name of the organization, you might limit the search by combining “food bank” with the name of your town or city. You can add a phrase as well. Being more specific in your searches will lead to more refined results.

In defining your search, avoid using common words such as “a” and “the,” as well as punctuation marks. Also note that most search engines are not case sensitive, so proper capitalization is unimportant. Finally, to get the most results, it may be helpful to focus on the base or root word. For example, instead of searching on “running gear for women,” you might get more results by using “run gear women,” leaving the search open to words such as “runner” in addition to “running.”

Your internet searches can be further refined by adding “+” or “–” in front of a word to either add to the search term or exclude something from the term. If, for example, you are searching for theaters but do not want movie theaters, you can type “theater–movie” to get search results that do not include movie theaters. This same approach can be used with “+” to add more terms to your searches. (Note: Some search engines may use NOT or AND instead of the mathematical sign.)

To search for an exact phrase or string of words, enclose the phrase in quotation marks. For example, if you are looking for information about historic theaters, you can search by typing “historic theaters” and then perhaps add a location (city or state) at the end, also in quotation marks, so your search would be “historic theaters” “Atlanta.”

Use the tilde (~) to search for synonyms for the word you type. For example, searching “~coat” might return search results including jackets and sweatshirts. The asterisk (*) can be used to search partial words. This can be very helpful if you want to search for a specific person or location but are not sure of the correct spelling or the complete term. If you are researching nonprofit organizations and want to capture information that might just say “nonprofits” instead of the complete phrase, you can search using “nonprofit*.” Finally, the “|” or OR operator can search on two terms at the same time, giving you results for either of the two terms. Searching “black shoes for sale” | “brown shoes for sale” will return results that satisfy both search phrases. These operators can be combined in various ways to make your searches much more directed. Be careful not to be too restrictive, however, as you might filter out some relevant results. Table 1.1 summarizes the key internet search operators.

Operator	Description
+ , AND	Include a word in the search
–, NOT	Exclude a word from the search
“ ”	Search for the exact words contained between the quotation marks
*	Search partial words
~	Search for synonyms
|, OR	Search two words at the same time

Table 1.1 Internet Search Operators Using these operators can make your search more effective.

Communication, Collaboration, and Social Media

Through the internet and the software programs available today, we can stay connected to colleagues and family across great distances. Email, the Google Workspace of programs, Microsoft 365, and social media sites have all had a significant impact on business and personal productivity. Email first became a reality with the ARPANET. Today, we have many options when it comes to our email service. Gmail from Google and Outlook by Microsoft led the email market. These programs are directly integrated into their other products to aid in communication and collaboration between users. The enhanced capabilities of email programs today allow easy sharing of photos, documents, video, and large files. Just the ability to connect to colleagues who are outside of your general geographic area on a regular basis greatly improves productivity and connectivity.

We also now have several options for videoconferencing. Many people use these tools outside the workplace to spend time with out-of-town family and friends. The traditional telephone conference call where several people sit around a conference table while another colleague calls in on a speaker phone is a rare sight in today’s office. Now, we can gather around a virtual table and use a videoconferencing program to conduct an important business meeting (Figure 1.27). We can use the same program to have a virtual meal with a family member who lives miles away. Some of the leading videoconferencing tools today include Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype, WebEx, and Google Meet. All have basically the same functionality, with features such as recording the meeting and providing a transcript of the discussion. These features have been valuable as part of a widespread shift to remote working conditions for many companies. The shift to greater use of remote working environments occurs for various reasons, ranging from global issues such as a public health emergency to more localized reasons like increasing employee satisfaction by assisting in work/life balance.

Figure 1.27 Videoconferencing tools such as Zoom make telecommuting easier than ever before. Forbes credited Zoom’s quick rise in use to its ease in navigation. (credit: modification of “VFRÖ - Zoom Meeting 3/2020” by Radiofabrik/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Another tool people use to connect and collaborate with others is social media. Social media is digital technology that allows users (individuals and organizations) to share information about themselves such as posts, photos, or videos. More than 40 percent of the global population use social media. Social media sites had their origin in connecting friends and families. However, as the number of users increased, businesses started to see the value in connecting with their customers via these social media sites. Many businesses have a distinct presence on social media as active users, not simply advertising through the site. Today, about 70 percent of businesses have a social media presence. The line between personal and business has blurred significantly. Very few people use social media solely for connecting and sharing with friends and family. Most will interact with businesses such as retail outlets and even banks on their social media sites. Many people follow a specific brand or company that they like. Personal and business social media sites are intertwined and connected across sites.

This phenomenon has shifted how businesses manage relationships with their customers. Many banks, for example, have a social media site where they share financial tips and banking products/promotions available to their customers. Consumer products companies can use the sites to get feedback on product attributes or advertising strategies. Small businesses can use social media sites to offer promotions to bring more foot traffic into the store—whether online or brick-and-mortar.

The leading social media sites vary by age to some extent, with older generations leaning more toward Facebook and LinkedIn while younger people tend to gravitate to platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and X (Twitter). Other popular social media sites include Pinterest and Reddit.

Privacy is a concern when dealing with any interaction on the internet, but especially with social media sites, where individuals often share personal information and pictures that could open them up to cyberattacks. You should regularly check and update the privacy settings on the social media sites you use. You might consider changing your password routinely to prevent hackers from accessing your information. Never share personal information through the site or through messages within the site. You should be wary of friend/follower requests from people who are unknown to you or your other connections. Avoid being controversial or posting overly personal content. Employers now are checking applicants’ social media profiles and, in some cases, monitoring employees’ activity.

Finally, as a user, it is easy to get pulled into clicking on advertisements that either show up in the margins or in the social media feed. Clicking leaves a virtual footprint of your activity that both legitimate advertisers and spammers can use to target advertisements and compel you to visit their sites. Often, you can limit your exposure through the site privacy settings, but the risk of exposure of personal information probably cannot be totally mitigated unless you avoid using social media sites altogether.

Personally identifiable information (PII) may include items that directly reveal your identity, such as your address or Social Security number. But other identifiable information can also be gathered, such as race, gender, or religion. You should be cautious when sharing information on the internet via social media and other websites. Useful precautions include regularly changing your passwords, not using the same passwords for multiple sites, providing limited personal information on social media sites or putting privacy settings at a high level, and, finally, being cautious about clicking links or advertisements from unknown sources.

Libraries and Media

The internet has changed the way that libraries operate and store/share information. Many libraries still house extensive collections of books, reference materials, magazines, and the like. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that reading print books still outpaces reading electronic books. Some college students have reaped the benefits of e-books by purchasing their textbooks in (often cheaper) electronic formats. Unlike a traditional print copy of the same material, these textbooks are interactive, enabling the publisher to include updated information and links to relevant extra materials that cannot be included in the print edition. With the availability of the internet and today’s technology, students can also rent electronic textbooks, which can save a good deal of money over time. Currently, electronic textbooks hold about 30 percent of the total market.

Many libraries now have online services that allow users to place a hold on materials. When the item becomes available, the patron is notified via text or email. Libraries are also moving some of their resources to a digital format. For example, some of the historical archives housed in libraries have been cataloged digitally to provide broader access. Libraries will still have a good supply of DVDs or books on CD for patrons to check out, but many resources can now be accessed electronically by using your library card.

Many states have library systems that allow patrons in one city to utilize materials owned by another library in a different city. With apps such as OneDrive and Hoopla, users can gain access to thousands of digital materials, including books and media. These apps are typically compatible with the leading e-reader apps, such as Kindle, Kobo, and Libby. Also, libraries have become a central access point and technology hub for those lacking these resources at home, as Figure 1.28 shows. Nearly 96 percent of all rural public libraries offer free access to the internet for their cardholders. In all these ways, the digital revolution has altered the way libraries think about the services they provide.

Figure 1.28 Many libraries today have computer workstations where users can access the internet and conduct research. (credit: modification of “Vancouver Public Central Library” by GoToVan/Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Libraries can be a source of research that might otherwise be unavailable to you. For example, the popular genealogy site Ancestry.com has agreements with libraries to provide some of its exclusive material free of charge to users of the site’s library edition. Libraries also provide free access to other databases that are centered on business research, including LexisNexis, BizMiner, Business Source Complete, and IbisWorld. These databases provide a wealth of information that is not readily obtained with a simple internet search.

Web Applications

A web application is a software program that is not installed directly onto the user’s computer. Instead, the program and data associated with it are stored on the internet, and the application is accessed through a browser or app rather than through an installed program on the computer. In the past, users had to purchase a license key to install programs directly onto their computer. This takes up memory and storage space on the computer and presents limitations on updates to the program. The user would generally have to purchase the program on a regular basis to get the most updated version or purchase an upgrade. Web-based applications give users access to the most up-to-date version of the software while sometimes freeing up essential storage on the networks and allowing seamless collaboration between users in real time. Companies pay monthly or annual subscription fees for these programs, often based on the number of user licenses they want to purchase. Throughout this text, you will become familiar with the Google Workspace of products and Microsoft 365, so that you can develop basic computing skills for the work world.

E-commerce

Electronic commerce, or e-commerce, refers to conducting business transactions online—buying and selling goods or services in an online environment rather than in a traditional brick-and-mortar storefront. The first e-commerce transaction was in 1994, but it is helpful to think of e-commerce as a modern-day version of the catalog sales (Sears, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward) of times past, except that the ordering is done over a computer rather than over a telephone or by filling out a form and mailing it through the post office.

E-commerce transactions can occur between all customers in the marketing mix. In a business-to-business transaction, one business might purchase office supplies from another business. In a business-to-customer transaction, an individual purchases a product from a retailer online and has it delivered to their home. Consumer-to-consumer purchases can also be made through e-commerce—for example, when an individual purchases a product directly from another individual through a resale website.

E-commerce does not necessarily involve shipping the purchased items; for instance, you may purchase and download an electronic product, such as an e-book or music. E-commerce simply means that the purchase transaction occurs online rather than in person. Today, virtually all products or services can be purchased online. Some entrepreneurs have started exclusively online businesses with virtual storefronts and no physical inventory. Today, e-commerce makes up about 15 percent of all retail sales across the world, with over twenty million e-commerce sites worldwide, representing nearly $4 trillion in sales. E-commerce jobs are expected to reach nearly 500,000 by the end of the 2020s; it is predicted that by 2040, 95 percent of purchases will be through e-commerce.

The Cloud and Cloud Computing

Technological advances have made working remotely, or telecommuting, a possibility for many employees. In fact, one recent survey estimated that nearly 90 percent of U.S. employees would like to work remotely. Today, there are almost five million workers in the United States (nearly 40 percent of the U.S. workforce) who telecommute. Since 2015, the number of businesses that have allowed telecommuting has increased over 40 percent. Even for those who do not telecommute full time, access to the internet and such technologies as cloud computing in the workplace enable many employees to work from home at least once per month, with nearly 50 percent doing so once a week.

With cloud computing many of the resources that were traditionally stored on individual computers, including software programs, data management and storage systems, and networking tools, are moved to internet servers. This technological advance was prompted by the need to store large amounts of information and data and to enable collaboration by individuals across the world. The resources and their associated data are stored in a data center that is managed by a cloud service provider (CSP). The benefits of cloud computing are that it can handle larger amounts of data than any physical storage device can, and it also allows users to access their data from any computer, no matter the location, and from any device, as Figure 1.29 illustrates.

Figure 1.29 Cloud computing enables you to store much more data than can be kept on any physical computing device. (credit: “Cloud-Computing” by Learntek/Flickr, Public Domain)

The cloud is the term used to describe servers that are located at different locations and that are accessed via the internet. These servers are housed in data centers to provide storage and computer processing operations. The term cloud was first used in 1996 by a researcher at Compaq, and the first cloud computing service was Amazon Web Services (AWS), which launched in 2002 as a public cloud system. The cloud offers some distinct cost advantages to businesses. Companies can save money by not having to constantly upgrade individual users’ storage capacity, and they can lower their IT costs because the subscription fee for use of the cloud service includes many troubleshooting and technical assistance functions. When we use the cloud for storage, we no longer need to store and maintain CDs with backups of the system or flash drives to transport documents from one computer to another. Cloud computing increases the speed of computing and gives all users real-time access to information stored in the cloud. Use of the cloud allows greater security for information storage as well as speedy distribution of new software and software upgrades. Finally, the cloud offers flexibility that enables businesses to operate more efficiently.

The security of information stored in the cloud can be of concern, but due diligence by individual users and the company can mitigate these risks. Here are some basic steps for ensuring the security of information:

1. Select a CSP that encrypts its data. Computers use the process of encryption to rewrite readable information into a code that can be deciphered only by using the key to the code, similar to solving a word puzzle that uses a secret code (see Figure 1.30). Encryption is an important step in ensuring the security of the information transmitted and stored in the cloud.
   
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