why www?

I guess I am missing something, but why do urls generally
contain the string www?

How doe the string help?  I don't see it.  I would
think it rare that a url would be used without http://
up front, so where is the functionality of www? 
Isn't http://www.whatever sort of like the Department of
Redundancy Department?

Forgive me, but it just looks like excess baggage, perhaps
there is meaning there and I missed the point.  It happens.
===============================================================
Ray Stell   stellr@vt.edu     (540) 231-4109     KE4TJC    28^D

Received on Wednesday, 13 December 1995 13:16:58 UTC