World Wide Web: Encyclopedia II - World Wide Web - Basic terms

World Wide Web - Basic terms

The World Wide Web is the combination of four basic ideas:

• hypertext, that is the ability, in a computer environment, to move from one part of a document to another or from one document to another through internal connections among these documents (called "hyperlinks");

• resource identifiers, that is the ability, on a computer network, to locate a particular resource (computer, document or other resource) on the network through a unique identifier;

• the client-server model of computing, in which client software or a client computer makes requests of server software or a server computer that provides the client with resources or services, such as data or files; and

• markup language, in which characters or codes embedded in text indicate to a computer how to print or display the text, e.g. as in italics or bold type or font.

On the World Wide Web, a client program called a web browser retrieves information resources, such as web pages and other computer files, from web servers using their network addresses and displays them, typically on a computer monitor, using a markup language that determines the details of the display. One can then follow hyperlinks in each page to other resources on the World Wide Web of information whose location is provided by these hyperlinks. It is also possible, for example by filling in and submitting web forms, to send information back to the server to interact with it. The act of following hyperlinks is often called "browsing" or "surfing" the Web. Web pages are often arranged in collections of related material called "websites."

The phrase "surfing the Internet" was first popularised in print by Jean Armour Polly, a librarian, in an article called Surfing the INTERNET, published in the Wilson Library Bulletin in June, 1992. Although Polly may have developed the phrase independently, slightly earlier uses of similar terms have been found on the Usenet from 1991 and 1992, and some recollections claim it was also used verbally in the hacker community for a couple years before that. Polly is famous as "NetMom" in the history of the Internet.

For more information on the distinction between the World Wide Web and the Internet itself — as in everyday use the two are sometimes confused — see Dark internet where this is discussced in more detail.

Although the English word worldwide is normally written as one word (without a space or hyphen), the proper name World Wide Web and abbreviation WWW are now well-established even in formal English. The earliest references to the Web called it the WorldWideWeb (an example of computer programmers' fondness for intercaps) or the World-Wide Web (with a hyphen, this version of the name is the closest to normal English usage).

Ironically, the abbreviation "WWW" is impractical as it contains more syllables than the full term "World Wide Web", and thus takes longer to say, however it is easier to type.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Basic terms", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki