A short introduction to Internet Technology

Marketers require a basic understanding of Internet technology in order to discuss the implementation of e-marketing with suppliers such as digital marketing agencies and with the internal IT team. In the final section of this chapter we provide a brief introduction to the technology, with which many readers will already be familiar. The Internet has existed since the late 1960s when a limited number of computers were connected for military and research purposes in the United States to form the ARPAnet.

Why then has the Internet only recently been widely adopted for business purposes? The recent dramatic growth in the use of the Internet has occurred because of the development of the World Wide Web. This became a commercial proposition in 1993 after development of the original concept by Tim Berners-Lee, a British scientist working at CERN in Switzerland in 1989. The World Wide Web changed the Internet from a difficult-to-use tool for academics and technicians to an easy-to-use tool for finding information for businesses and consumers. The World Wide Web is an interlinked publishing medium for displaying graphic and text information. This information is stored on web server computers and then accessed by users who run web browser programs such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Apple Safari or Mozilla Firefox which display the information and allow users to select links to access other web sites.

Promoting web site addresses is important to marketing communications. The technical name for web addresses is uniform or universal resource locators (URLs). URLs can be thought of as a standard method of addressing similar to postal codes that make it straightforward to find the name of a site.

Web addresses are structured in a standard way as follows:

http://www.domain-name.extension/filename.html

The domain name refers to the name of the web server and is usually selected to be the same as the name of the company, and the extension will indicate its type. The extension is also commonly known as the global top-level domain (gTLD). Note that gTLDs are currently under discussion and there are proposals for adding new types such as .store and .firm. Common gTLDs are:

• .com represents an international or American company such as www.travelocity.com.

• .co.uk represents a company based in the UK such as www.thomascook.co.uk.

• .ac.uk is a UK-based university (e.g.www.derby.ac.uk).

• .org.uk and .org are not-for-profit organisations (e.g. www.greenpeace.org).

• .net is a network provider such as www.demon.net.

The ‘filename.html’ part of the web address refers to an individual web page, for example ‘products.html’ for a web page summarizing a company’s products. When a web address is typed in without a filename, for example www.bt.com, the browser automatically assumes the user is looking for the home page, which by convention is referred to as index.html. When creating sites, it is therefore vital to name the home page index.html (or an equivalent). The file index.html can also be placed in sub-directories to ease access to information. For example, to access a support page a customer would type www.bt.com/support rather than www.bt.com/support/index.htm. In offline communications sub-directories are publicized as part of a company’s URL strategy.

What is internet?

The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a network of networks that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing.

Internet is defined as an Information superhighway, to access information over the web. However, it can be defined in many ways as follows:

• Internet is a world-wide global system of interconnected computer networks.

• Internet uses the standard Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

• Every computer in internet is identified by a unique IP address.

• IP Address is a unique set of numbers (such as 110.22.33.114) which identifies a computer location.

• A special computer DNS (Domain Name Server) is used to give name to the IP Address so that user can locate a computer by a name.

• For example, a DNS server will resolve a name http://www.tutorialspoint.com to a particular IP address to uniquely identify the computer on which this website is hosted.

• Internet is accessible to every user all over the world.

Evolution Of Internet

The concept of Internet was originated in 1969 and has undergone several technological & Infrastructural changes as discussed below:

• The origin of Internet devised from the concept of Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANET).

• ARPANET was developed by United States Department of Defense.

• Basic purpose of ARPANET was to provide communication among the various bodies of government.

• Initially, there were only four nodes, formally called Hosts.

• In 1972, the ARPANET spread over the globe with 23 nodes located at different countries and thus became known as Internet.

• By the time, with invention of new technologies such as TCP/IP protocols, DNS, WWW, browsers, scripting languages etc.,Internet provided a medium to publish and access information over the web

How does the Internet work?

In its simplest form, the Internet is a collection of connected documents or objects. Hyperlinks are what connect these documents. A hyperlink is a virtual link from one document on the World Wide Web to another. It includes the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the linked-to document which describes where on the Internet a document is. It is what you enter in the address bar of the browser, because it is the address of that document on the Internet. A URL provides information to both browsers and people. URLs include domain names which translate to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Every website corresponds to an IP address, which is a structured series of dots and numbers indicating where it is physically located. In fact, every device on the network has an IP address. When you enter a URL into the address bar of a browser, the Domain Name System (DNS) record indicates where the document is that you are linking to.

Confused? Look at the domain name and IP address for Quirk’s website:

Domain name: www.quirk.biz

IP address: 212.100.243.204

A domain name looks something like this: www.domainname.com

But a lot more information can be included in this. URLs can carry the following information: subdomain.domain.tld/directory

• Domain - the registered domain name of the website.

• Subdomain - a domain that is part of a larger domain.

• TLD– the top level domain, uppermost in the hierarchy of domain names.

• Directory – a folder to organize content.

The TLD can indicate the country in which a domain is registered, and can also give information about the nature of the domain.

• .com – is the most common TLD.

• .co.za, .co.uk, .com.au – these TLDs give country information.

• .org – used by non-profit organisations.

• .gov – used by governments.

• .ac – used by academic institutions.

Domain names must be registered and there is a fee for doing so.

A website, or any content on the Internet, is hosted on a server. A web server is a machine that serves web content, and the term often refers to the software (applications) and the hardware (machine), that serve the content. Very simplistically, it works a little something like this:

• Someone enters a URL in a browser.

• This is translated to an IP address, which indicates where the content is located, or where the server for the content is.

• The server then returns the content requested.

• And the person sees the website that she requested.

This information can be sent via Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), or HTTPS, which is a combination of HTTP with a secure way of transmitting Information. HTTP makes it easy to request and transfer information. It’s what makes our websites load, and allows us to connect with people on social networks. However, the information that is transferred is not transferred securely, meaning that it could be viewed by third parties. If this was the only way of sending information online, it would be a bad idea to bank online, or to purchase anything over the Internet. This is why we use HTTPS to encrypt information when it is sensitive. In order to make use of HTTPS, the relevant website needs to get a secure certificate, which ensures that various details have been verified by a trusted third party.

If you’re unsure, look in the browser address bar to check whether the site you are on is HTTP or HTTPS. Most browsers will indicate a secure site with a little padlock in the address bar, or somewhere else in the browser, to make sure that you know you are in a secure site.

How Do People Access the Internet?

People connect to the Internet and access content in many different ways. When it comes to the physical connection to the Internet, the market presents a number of options:

• Dial-up

• 3G connections

• WiFi and WiMax

• Broadband

• ADSL

The list goes on. The devices people use vary from mobile phones and handheld small devices to personal notebooks and desktop computers. The environment that people are in when they access the Internet also differs:

• At home

• At the office or place of work

• Libraries and education centres

• Internet cafes and coffee shops

Not only do these environmental factors affect how people use the Internet, but their reasons for using the Internet also have an effect on how they interact online.

For some people, it is primarily a communications channel, and their online activity is focused on their email inbox, while for others it may be a research channel, with search engines playing a large role in their online experience.

Having such a diverse audience means that there are many channels available to marketers when it comes to digital marketing.

From the Internet to intranets and extranets

‘Intranet’ and ‘extranet’ are two terms that arose in the 1990s to describe applications of Internet technology with specific audiences rather than anyone with access to the Internet. Access to an intranet is limited by username and password to company staff, while an extranet can only be accessed by authorized third parties such as registered customers, suppliers and distributors. This relationship between the Internet, intranets and extranets is indicated by Figure. It can be seen that an intranet is effectively a private-company Internet with access available to staff only. An extranet permits access to trusted third parties, and the Internet provides global access.

Extranets provide exciting opportunities to communicate with major customers since tailored information such as special promotions, electronic catalogues and order histories can be provided on a web page personalized for each customer. As well as using the Internet to communicate with customers, companies find that internal use of an intranet or use of an extranet facilitates communication and control between staff, suppliers and distributors. Second, the Internet, intranet and extranet can be applied at different levels of management within a company.