The World Wide Web (often called “the Web” or WWW) is a system for sharing information across the internet using linked documents that you can view in a browser. When you visit a website, watch a video online, or read an article, you're using the World Wide Web.

British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web in 1989 while working at a research laboratory in Switzerland. He wanted to make it easier for scientists to share information with each other. His breakthrough idea was creating documents that could link to other documents anywhere in the world, like footnotes in a book that point you to other sources, except these links work instantly with a single click.

The Web runs on top of the internet, which is the physical network of cables and computers connecting the world. Think of the internet as the roads and highways, while the Web is like all the buildings, shops, and houses you can visit using those roads. Before the Web existed, the internet was much harder to use and mainly limited to universities and government agencies.

When you type a web address (called a URL) into your browser, you're asking a computer somewhere in the world to send you a web page. These pages can contain text, pictures, videos, and links to other pages.