A part of the Internet that contains linked text, image, sound, and video documents. Before the World Wide Web (WWW), information retrieval on the Internet was text-based and required that users know basic UNIX commands. The World Wide Web has gained popularity largely because of its ease of use (point-and-click graphical interface) and multimedia capabilities, as well as its convenient access to other types of Internet services (such as e-mail, Telnet, and Usenet).