I explained what the internet is using a shopping mall, because everybody knows how a mall works.
If someone you love is new to the internet, start with a place they already know. In January 2018 I published the first video in my Teach My Mom series, and it explains the internet as a shopping mall. The websites are the stores, every store has an address, and you browse from one to the next.
The business case
The video isn't about business, but the method carries over. When a non-technical person needs to understand something technical, borrow a picture they already carry around. I picked a mall because everybody knows what a shopping mall is.
It's the same move you'd make with a customer who doesn't speak your jargon, a new hire on day one, or a parent getting online for the first time. Start from what they know, then give the new word once the picture is in place. I didn't say "browsing" until the walk through the mall was done. By then the word described something they'd done many times.
The video is from 2018, so a few details are dated, like typing www at the front of every address. I've noted where things look different today.
A mall has an address
A mall is a big building with different levels and a lot of stores. It also has a street address. In the video I used a made-up one, 123 Main Street, in whatever city you live in.
To get there you might take a taxi and give the driver that address. Once you're inside, you check the board that lists the stores and decide where to go first.
Stores inside the mall
Each store has a number or a name. My examples were a shoe store, a clothing store, an ornament store, a bank and a post office. You go into the shoe store and maybe buy something. Then you visit the clothing store. Then you remember you need ornaments for friends, and later you head upstairs to do your banking.
Going from store to store like that is browsing. Everyone already knows how to do it in a mall. The internet uses the same word for the same habit.
The internet is digital
The internet has no physical location. It's all digital, all in a computer. When you're on it, you visit sites instead of stores. You go from site one to site two to site three, the same way you'd walk from store to store.
Jump to
- 0:00 The internet explained as a shopping mall
- 0:54 A mall has an address
- 1:10 Stores inside the mall
- 2:35 Going store to store is browsing
- 2:57 Sites instead of stores
- 3:50 Every site has an address
- 5:11 www and .com, the exact address
- 6:13 You browse with a browser
I walk through the whole mall in seven minutes in the full video on my channel: What is the Internet? Teach My Mom, on YouTube.
Every site has an address
Each site has an address too. Behind the scenes that address is a number, and it's a complicated one. People can't remember numbers like that, so every site also gets a name. Mozilla's guide to what a domain name is explains it the same way today: IP addresses are hard to remember, so you type a domain name and your computer looks up the number for you.
My example names were a shoe store, Walmart, your bank and Amazon. Which bank doesn't matter. Each site has its own name, the same way each store in the mall does.
The exact address
To reach one specific site, you type its exact address. In 2018 I taught it as three parts: www, then the name, then .com. So Walmart was www.walmart.com and Amazon was www.amazon.com. That full address is called a URL, or internet address. It does the same job as the street address of a store.
Mozilla's guide to URLs defines a URL as the address of a unique resource on the internet. If you're teaching this today, point at the address bar on their own screen, since it may not show the www the way I wrote it in 2018. The idea from 2018 holds, because one exact address takes you to one exact place.
You browse with a browser
You get around the internet with a browser, a program that lets you browse it. The closest thing I could find in the mall was a little cart that drives you from store to store. A browser does that job online, taking you from one website to the next.
Start with the mall
That's the first lesson of the series: the internet works like a mall with no building, websites are the stores, each one has an exact address, and a browser is how you get around. My next video in the series goes deeper into what a browser is. If you're helping someone in your family get comfortable online, send them this one first. If you want to talk tech in plain language with other founders, join me live on Friday.
About Dwain
I'm Dwain Browne, Founder of LeadScore AI and SnapSuite. I'm a Toronto-based software architect with 25+ years across software, sales, operations and entrepreneurship. SnapSuite helps contractors and trades teams get paid faster, and LeadScore AI shows you which leads deserve your next call. I also run Vibe Code to Profit, a community helping people build software with AI.