Less than 25 Pct of Americans know difference between World Wide Web and Internet

Despite many Americans using Internet daily, less than 25 percent of  know that "the Internet" and "the World Wide Web" are not the same thing.

"Substantial majorities of Internet users are able to correctly answer questions about some common technology platforms and everyday Internet usage terms," senior Pew researcher Aaron Smith said in the report. "On the other hand, relatively few Internet users are familiar with certain concepts that underpin the Internet and other modern technological advances."

Only one-third of people, for example, know that Moore's Law relates to how many transistors can be put on a microchip. More than 65 percent, meanwhile, know that a "wiki" is a tool that allows people to collaboratively modify online content.

The study is part of a series commemorating the 25th anniversary of the World Wide Web. On March 12, 1989, Tim Berners-Lee wrote a paper about an "information management" system, which became the basis of the Web. He eventually released the code for the system on Dec. 25, 1990.

"On the other hand, fewer than half (44 percent) are aware that when a company posts a privacy statement, it does not necessarily mean that they are actually keeping the information they collect on users confidential," Mr. Smith said.

The study also found that college graduates did better on the survey. Those who have graduated college were far more likely to know that Twitter has a 140-character limit, and that URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator.

"Still, there are some elements of the technology world on which even this highly educated group rates poorly," Smith wrote. "For instance, just one in five correctly answered that the internet and World Wide Web are not the same thing, and only 12 [percent] know that Mosaic was the first widely available graphical web browser."