Understanding How the Internet Works

With the recent developments in regards to Social Media and the internet where certain accounts and websites are being taken down because of standards violations, there has been some confusion as to how the internet works and why your website is just one piece of the bigger internet puzzle.

As a business owner with an internet website, you may not realize that any website is basically a tenant on the internet with the potential of being evicted at any time based on the standards the “Landlords” establish.

If your website is the tenant, then who are your “landlords”? Internet information is provided to users of the web by what are called Web Servers. You generally pay one of these Web Servers a monthly or yearly “hosting fee” and in exchange they act as a portal for your website to connect to internet.

A simple Flow Chart looks like,

– Website

– Server

– Host

– Internet Portal

– – Browsers

– – Search Engines

What is a Web Server

Web Servers are basically simple computer programs that dispense the web page when they are requested using the web client.

When you decide to have a website you also need to pick a web host for your website. In web hosting, the web servers enable the hosting providers to handle multiple domains (or multiple websites) on a single server. But, normally, when someone refers to a web server, it means the piece of software that can be downloaded on the computer system. We are all familiar with the names of some of the more popular web hosts like Go Daddy, Amazon, Host Gator and Network Solutions.

How Web servers work?

A web page on the internet can be viewed when the browser requests it from the web server and the web server responds by sending the correct web page back to the browser.

What is The Internet Browser

The internet browser is what the user utilizes on their local device to access the internet. We are all familiar with browsers like, Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge. The user downloads the browser software on their local device, and this connects them to the internet.

The browser connects to a domain name server where web pages live, and it retrieves the corresponding IP address for the web server.

Recently what we have seen is that Web Servers and Browsers are clamping down on websites or content that they feel are being divisive and can restrict the access internet visitors have to these websites.

Search Engines

We all know about search and the search engines they are the new phone books for the internet, if your website isn’t meeting their standards, they can either decide to rank your website so low that it is difficult to find or not even list your website at all.

App Stores Like Apple and Google Play

A mobile app is a software application developed specifically for use on wireless computing devices, like smartphones and tablets.

When you have website mobile app, you want to promote this App to as many users as possible and currently Google Play and Apple are the two largest “Stores” for mobile applications.

Recently we have seen Google Play and Apple remove or refuse to promote mobile applications that they feel are derisive

The Big Internet Picture

So now you see that there are several moving parts just get your information in front of your potential internet customers, your website not only needs to be built soundly it also must contain relevant approved content so the “landlords” on the internet don’t blacklist or stop promoting your website.

People moved to Social Media sites like Parlor believing they had more freedom of expression, but the “landlords” that a website like Parlor depends on are changing their terms of use and now a website like Parlor will need to find more ‘Open Source”, internet “landlords” that do not limit the flow of information

And that will be the question going forward, how much should big tech be able to censor internet information when the internet was designed for the “free” flow of information.

TYFYS

DMC