Uses of Internet

Introduction to Uses of Internet

The Internet is a virtual networking medium that can be connected and used on various devices. It enables the users to send, receive, collect, store, update, delete, and more. Internet usage is expanding its boundaries every day. A few of the Internet’s major uses are e-commerce, e-learning, knowledge sharing, social connectivity, etc. So, in this topic, we are going to learn about what are the uses of internet.

Why do we use the Internet?

This is the primary uses of the internet which are as follows:

• Seek information on anything across the globe on a real-time basis.
• Communicate, and collaborate with others.
• Telecommute to the office or work from home.
• Do transactions with business entities.
• Download files from a remote.
• Get educated and entertained.
• Carry out social.
• Do group activities.
• Collect operational data from remote equipment (stationary as well as moving).
• Process data while it is streamed to the central server.
• Get real-time data on the surrounding devices, systems, and whether to automate activities.
• Design a decision-taking system against the decision support system.
• Connect people, stakeholders, machines, and everything.

Top 9 Uses of Internet

Here are the top uses of the internet, which are explained below in detail:

1. Electronic Mail (email)

The first major use of the internet is Email. People thronged to email for sharing information, data files, Photos, Videos, Business communications, and more. This has enabled faster communication between people and improved business efficiency. An email has reduced paper usage and the load on physical mail systems.

Though other latest collaboration tools provide many rich features, they cannot de-popularize Email, which still rules official and personal communication. There are many free Email websites offering mail services, and practically every individual has an Email address connected by Email. Email concepts paved the way for developing many innovative tools for improved collaboration.

2. FTP File Transfer

This is the second major use case for the internet in the early days. FTP is the file transfer protocol that enables data exchange between two stakeholders over internet media in a secure way. The data exchange may occur between two business entities or customers with business and vice versa. Usually, E-mail restricts the size of a file that can be shared, and it is not secure to share sensitive and confidential data across public networks. FTP concept is still in use in mobile apps for file downloading.

3. Search Engines

These engines locate the information one seeks, available on whichever server across the globe (world wide web). Google, Yahoo, and MSN are renowned search engines today. One can search for anything on this site, and the search question can be in any format. People have started using the word Google as a generic verb synonymous with search.

4. E-Commerce

The Internet enables the selling of goods and services in online mode. Many e-commerce platform vendors like Amazon and Ola aggregate several products/services available in the market and sell them through their portal to customers. Products are procured by platform vendors, stored in their warehouses, packed, and distributed by them in their brand. Customers get a good discount and don’t have to visit physical stores.

5. Online Banking

Called Net banking, it allows doing banking transactions at ease sitting at home or while on mobile. Footfalls in the bank branches have come down appreciably with almost all the services available in net banking 24×7. Any amount of money can be transferred instantaneously through this facility. E-Banking supports Electricity bills, Telephone bills, and other services payments.

6. Cashless Transactions

Bill Payment at merchandise outlets through debit cards, credit cards, and UPI gateway is increasing. Cash circulation gets reduced in the system to the extent of the growth of these transactions. It’s growing by more than 50% yearly and is expected to grow by 10 times over the next 5 years.

7. Education

The Internet offers a wealth of educational material on any subject with structured navigation and search facilities. One can seek any reading material, and the internet will get it for them from any server in any part of the world, and people need not have to go to libraries to go through books. Those who cannot attend physical (face-to-face) classes can take an online course where they get connected to the teacher, in the other part of the world, in video mode and get taught on the subject backed up by other audiovisual tools.

8. Collaboration

Online chat tools like messenger, Skype, and other video conferencing tools help people to get connected 24 x7 and have hassle-free business and personal discussions. This avoids unwanted travel by people and saves their time for productive use. The Internet has also facilitated work from home with seamless connectivity to the office and avoiding daily commuting.

9. Social Networking

Internet connects people online and enables them to form social groups. Information, Ideas, views, and opinions on social/political issues are exchanged. Political and social organization uses this platform to promote their interest among the public.

Applications of Internet

With the evolution of IOT, Artificial Intelligence technologies, supported by computing resources in the cloud, more and more new applications are being developed over the internet layer, and a few of them are:

1. Tracking the Vehicle – Fleet Management system
2. Monitoring the health of the moving vehicle – Telematics
3. Autonomous and Driverless vehicle – 5G networks
4. Remote diagnostics and triggering preventive maintenance of equipment
5. Monitoring Children in the home from outside
6. Online streaming of events
7. Entertainment – Contents sharing platform (OTT), Internet TV, Web Serials
8. Connected Machines – Manufacturing 0

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to the Uses of the Internet. Here we have discussed the introduction to uses of the internet, the top 9 uses, and respective applications. You may also look at the following articles to learn more-

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