More people are accessing the web using mobile devices instead of computers. The growth of people using mobile devices to access the web keeps growing with each passing year. According to this article written in 2021, as of the year 2018, a staggering 92% of households had a computer. Smartphones have overtaken all other devices, like tablets and laptops, however, 84% of households had smartphones- which is at least 5-20% higher than households with desktops, laptops, and tablets. It’s also more common for Urban dwellers to have computers and internet access, with a higher rate of subscription to broadband internet. Older populations, people 60 years of age and higher, are less likely to have a computer in their home, and even lesser likely to own a smartphone. [1]
Who controls the internet and all it offers? It’s widely believed that the different Governments around the world control the Web, as they control everything else for their respective countries. China, for instance, has more strict control over its inhabitants’ usage, what sites they can visit, and sites that are banned. For China, it’s become more relaxed than it used to be, but compared to a lot of other counties, especially the United States, it’s very strict. The U.S Government monitors its citizens’ usage as well, flagging certain sites, and tracking illegal activities with surveillance. What was thought of and created as a tool for information is equally used for control and repression of the same people that use it. [2]
If the Government controls the internet, did they create it too? Not quite. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, born on the 8th of June in 1955, is best known for inventing the World Wide Web in 1989 at the age of 34. After graduating from Oxford University, he went on to work at CERN, a Physics Laboratory, and helped develop the tools that would go on to help his invention of the Web. There are now many different reasons for accessing the web, from information like books and news, to videos and blogs. [3]
A blog is a page on the web, designed by either an individual or a group, that they can freely write and post written documents on whatever subject they feel strongly about. Blogs help with movements, small mom-and-pop stores, and almost anything that someone can write about. It gets the word out about anything and everything, and with helpful tags, anyone who searches the internet can easily find them. There is the written blog and then there is also a vlog or a video log, which people can upload on multiple different sites, like Youtube. Some bloggers create the posts on the computer, and some do it on the go with their smartphones and tablets, just like the people who read their posts. Thank goodness for responsive website design and dynamic content!
A responsive website design is essentially one that a viewer can open on any device- computer, tablet, or smartphone. No pixelation or links that are inaccessible, and no difficulty reading any text or seeing images. Responsive websites are necessary to the public because creators don’t know who will view their websites. Without knowing who will view it, there’s no way to know what it will be viewed on. Mary could view it on her tablet with an 8-inch screen and Devon could open the website from his laptop which has a 14-inch screen, while Janice could view the site from her 3-inch smartphone screen. Without responsive website design, if we only think about the 14-inch screen, then anything smaller, like the tablet and smartphone cannot view the site, which means less traffic. Fewer people view whatever website it is, which can hurt business. How do people find all the different pages on the web though? Through search engines! [4]
SEO is short for Search Engine Optimization, which helps improve a webpages visibility or search results. This could drive traffic, sales, and readers or followers to your business or cause. The unfortunate bit to SEO is that it’s extremely tedious with a lot of technical decisions that need to be made, business decisions that have to be approved and in the end, there is no guaranteed result. There are six different steps for SEO; research, planning, implementation, monitoring, assessment, and maintenance. Even if you get through four of the steps, and pay into it, there is no guarantee that you’ll swing a profit. You have to find loyal customers, keep them engaged and keep them coming back for your product- with no worry that they will go to one of your competitors instead. [5]
Now, dynamic content is a sites way to personalize the users experience. Anything that a page designer can use to keep the process engaging for each visitor to the page. Page counters each time someone’s on there, weather and temperature for that visitors area, etc. It keeps each different visitor engaged, happy and hopefully saving your page so they can come back to it later. Of course, if it’s a page with multiple authors, and they live thousands of miles away, how do they seamlessly work together on updates? That’s where CMS comes in. [6]
Content Management is a system that was designed to manage website content that is used in collaboration by any number of people. Wikipedia, widely known as a dictionary of sorts to people, is a content management system, since any visitor to a Wikipedia page can edit the content that is displayed. The infamous Cloud is another, where people can upload their documents, and others can download them, edit and reupload to the cloud. [7]
A youtube channel is one person or group’s personal account, where they can upload videos to share with a targeted audience. There is a wide range of people who have channels, from academics like Bill Nye to video game enthusiasts like Markiplier. News outlets, musicians, and artists; all can have a youtube channel to upload videos to share whatever message they want to get across. From personal life updates, upcoming events, new games that came out, scientific discoveries, and more!
[1] Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2018 (census.gov)
[2] Who controls the Internet? – Harvard Law Today
[4] What is responsive web design? (adobe.com)
[5] What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? | Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) (interaction-design.org)
[6] What is Dynamic Content? Definition & Examples- Omniconvert