Lessons
The World Wide Web
You have probably used the Internet long enough to know that most Web site addresses start with the letters “www”. This stands for the World Wide Web, or informally, “the Web”. The World Wide Web is simply a network of computers all over the world. Does your computer have Internet access? Then your computer is part of the World Wide Web. All the computers in the Web can communicate with each other. This is pretty amazing when you think about it. In a matter of seconds, you can access information from Mexico, buy something from a store in Italy, or chat with someone in South Africa. The World Wide Web has certainly made our world seem a lot smaller.
We have all gotten so used to typing in a Web address on our computer and pressing “Enter”, that we probably don’t think about the complicated series of events that it takes to transfer information across the World Wide Web. Here is some vocabulary to help you understand this process. When we view information in a document transferred over the Web, the information that we are viewing is called a Web page. The computer that lets us view the Web page is called the Web server, and our computer is called the Web client, since it is viewing the page. Each Web page has its own unique Web address. Let’s take a look at a typical Web address:
http://www.someone.com/page.html
You’ve probably seen thousands of these kinds of addresses before, without thinking too much about it. Let’s break this address down into its components to learn a little bit about what exactly we are looking at. One thing first, though. From now on, we won’t use the term “Web address”. Instead, we will use the term URL. This stands for Uniform Resource Locator. Don’t worry, this won’t be on a test. Just know that URL means the same thing as a Web address.
Here are the parts of this URL:
http:// - The URL for every Web page you could possibly view on your computer begins with this (even if you don’t type it in, your computer will add it automatically). HTTP stands for Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, and it is the communication standard that computers use to communicate with each other. In other words, HTTP is the language that computers speak with one another that allows you to view Web pages.
www. - This means that we are viewing a page on the World Wide Web.
someone - This is the Web site’s domain name, in other words, the name of the Web site. The domain name makes this URL unique from all others on the Web, and in most cases, lets you know a little bit about what Web site you are accessing. If you would like to build your own Web site, and you would like your own domain name, you simply have to register for one. So if you would like your URL to be www.amysmith.com, you can do it! It’s surprisingly cheap (usually between $5-$20 per year). For more information about registering a domain name, go to www.internic.net.
.com - This is the extension of the URL. This lets you know what type of Web site you are accessing. Here are some commonly used extensions
- com - A commercial business in the United States
- org - A non-profit organization in the United States
- edu - A school or educational institution in the United States
- mil - A military institution in the United States
- net - A network of Web sites linked together
- Additionally, each country outside of the United States has its own extension. For example, all URLs located in Mexico contain the extension .mx and all URLs located in Italy contain the extension .it.
/page - This is the name of the page that you are viewing.
.html - This tells you that this page was written using the HTML language (more on that later).
Next time you type in a URL in your computer, see if you can identify these different parts.
Web Browsers
So to access the World Wide Web, you just plug in a computer, turn it on, and type in a URL, right? I wish it were that simple. There are a couple of additional things that you will need to access the Web. The first thing that you will need is an Internet Service Provider (ISP). For the typical home, an ISP is a company such as AOL, Comcast, Verizon or PeoplePC that connects you to the World Wide Web. Your connection might be through a telephone line, a DSL connection, a cable or a wireless connection. You typically pay a monthly fee for this service. If you get the Internet at home, your parents are probably already subscribing to an ISP.
The second thing you will need to use the World Wide Web is a Web browser. A Web browser is a program that allows you to read Web pages. If you sign up for an ISP, you will usually automatically receive a Web browser to view Web pages with. There are many Web browsers available, but the most popular Web browsers right now are Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Netscape. These 3 Web browsers are what over 90% of computers use to surf the Web.
Now, for all of you Web designers out there, I need to give you a little bit of bad news...sorry. Web pages may look different on different browsers. You may design a Web page that looks fantastic in Internet Explorer but in Netscape Navigator, it looks a little strange. You need to be aware of this when designing Web pages, and you should design pages that look great on the most common Web browsers. Obviously, if you plan to do this, you should have all 3 Web browsers installed on your computer.
