Abstract: A bar code symbol information driven system for accessing information on the Internet. The system includes a programmed bar code symbol reader having a hand-supportable housing, and an Internet browser program operably connectable to an Internet terminal. The programmed bar code symbol reader has an optical scanning device for optically scanning a bar code symbol encoded with an Uniform Resource Locator (URL) pointing to an information resource on the Internet, and a scan data processor for producing words of digital scan data representative of the width of the bars and spaces of the code symbol. A programmable decoder module is provided within the hand-supportable housing for processing the words of digital scan data and producing symbol character data representative of the decoded bar code symbol.