Surf Internet

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As Internet surfing (or just surf ) is colloquially sequential viewing of multiple sites in the Internet called. A web browser is usually used for this.

The term “ Surfing the Internet ” was made famous by the article of the same name by the American librarian Jean Armor Polly , which appeared in the Wilson Library Bulletin in June 1992 . She came up with the name when she looked at her mouse pad, which had a picture of a surfer on it.

Distinction

One can distinguish between two variants:

  • The random access to web pages, while the content of the pages visited does not have to play a role, as well
  • following links from website to website, usually looking for specific information or showing interest in specific topics.

From a methodological point of view, both approaches differ - to different degrees - from a planned and structured information search on the Internet. The term is mostly used disparagingly; also because the "surfer" consumes a lot of time and receives little informational value.

Technical definition

From a technical point of view, Internet surfing means reading, writing and deleting files that are on web servers. Depending on the user's rights status, he can change the files or only read them. This technical definition was less understandable to users in the 1990s, when the Internet was beginning to boom, so that the simple expression quickly found its way into the media.

In the 1990s, Deutsche Telekom tried to coined the term ticker for its BTX system, which was incompatible with the Internet .

Web links