American Libraries and the Internet: The Social Construction of W ...

Also, home computer ownership has prepared users with the necessary technical skills and expertise to run software like the Mosaic browser (Abbate, 1999). Some online services like America Online encourage users to go online by allowing them to test it in advance. This example illustrates trialability, an innovation attribute that is positively related to the rate of adoption (Rogers, 1995). According to a survey conducted in 2000 by the Standard Institute for the Quantitative Study of Society, 65% of American households have at least one computer, and about two thirds of these are connected to the Internet (Nie & Erbring, 2000).

These factors have influenced each other. Widespread access to the Internet prepared the way for the rapid diffusion of the World Wide Web. The development of the Web also attracted more users to the Internet. By the late 1990s, the terms the Internet and the Web have almost become synonymous to many people. The growing popularity of personal computers contributed to the smooth and rapid expansion of Web use; the Web, in turn, stimulated the demand for getting them connected. This has encouraged research on the Internet and its applications. Attractive Web technology also lures more people to own personal computers. These factors interact with each other and have contributed to the growth of the Web.

Technological Features and Capabilities of the Web

The basic Web technologies comprise three parts (Chatterjee, 1997): Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Uniform Resource Locator (URL), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).