Understanding the Internet: A Glimpse into the Building Blocks, Applications, Security and Hidden Secrets of the Web

Ross MacDonald (Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Doha, Qatar)

Library Hi Tech

ISSN: 0737-8831

Article publication date: 23 November 2010

201

Keywords

Citation

MacDonald, R. (2010), "Understanding the Internet: A Glimpse into the Building Blocks, Applications, Security and Hidden Secrets of the Web", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 28 No. 4, pp. 724-725. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378831011096376

Publisher

:

Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


The complexity of the online world seems to grow even faster than the volume of data available within it. The major strength of this book is its sheer scope, covering many aspects of the internet, from data packet routing to the future of web intelligence. All this is presented in an extremely consistent style, presumably because the editor, computer scientist Kevin Curran, doubles as co‐author for all chapters and as first author for almost all. This style is also the only outstanding weakness of the book, as much of the delivery is somewhat dry, and occasionally abrupt.

All chapters deal with quite precisely defined topics, but the book trends from the narrowly technical to the broadly social over the course of six sections (which oddly are not indicated in the table of contents, but are described in the introduction and summary). The first section deals with basic (but not necessarily simple) aspects of the internet, including basic protocols and mesh networking. Also addressed are the technicalities – and surprisingly varied applications of – wireless sensor networks, and the perpetual question, “What causes delay in the internet?”. The second section is still technical, but focuses on web‐based operating systems, RSS, interactive web pages, VoiceXML and their implications for internet users.

Unfortunately, while concise, some parts of the earlier sections read like lists of definitions rather than explanations. The third part of book, summarising trends in internet applications and services, begins in true style with a list of definitions (from Wikipedia, no less) of Web 2.0 and what it encapsulates. Examples are presented of the influence of user‐added value inherent in Web 2.0, including mobile social software and its dangers; the influence that consumers wield in the “long tail” model of internet marketing; and a potted history of podcasting, blogging, screencasting and vlogging. Section 4 examines aspects of the “mobile internet”, introducing a possible global wireless network based on WiMAX (Worldwide interoperability for microwave access). Hybrid applications such as Google Gears that mix online and offline functions are discussed, as are the technical and design implications of the growing use of small devices such as smart phones to access websites. Curran and co‐authors then present a scary section devoted to internet security issues, including hacking, the feeble nature of WiFi encryption, and what needs to be done about spam email. The final section addresses the internet that most users do not see, including steganography – the art of hiding messages in pictures, the “invisible” web, broad versus vertical search engines (and the hidden marketing potential of the latter), and the future world of intelligent web agents that might find things without you even looking for them.

Read as a whole, many of the chapters seem concise almost to the point of abruptness, and heavy on stacked‐up definitions; but this surely reflects the fact that this useful reference is really a book for dipping into. Taken as such, it provides a wide‐ranging summary of the internet and its many aspects that contains something for anyone wanting to know more about the internet and where it might be going.

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