2.3 WWW: Composition, Hypertext, Web Page and URL

1. WWW

WWW stands for World Wide Web that is originally designed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1991 while he was a contractor at European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN). WWW can be defined as a combination of all resources and users on the Internet that are using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The World Wide Web that commonly referred as the web is often confused with internet. To differentiate both of it, the web is subset of the internet, whereby it consists of webpage that can be access through a web browser. While the internet is where all the information gathered in an actual network.

2. Hypertext

Hypertext is a database format in which information related to that on a display can be accessed directly from the display. It is a text that links to other information and by clicking on the link, a user can quickly jump to different content.

3.Web Pages

Web page is a document commonly written in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) that is accessible through the Internet which can be displayed in a web browser such as Firefox, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer or Edge, or Apple's Safari. These are also often called "web pages" or just "pages." A web page is accessed by entering a URL address and may contain text, graphics, and hyperlinks to other web pages and files.

4. Web Browser

Web browser can be defined as a software program that users use to access the internet and view web pages on their computer. It can be interpreted as a gateway to the internet. The most common browser used by users are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

5. Website

Website is a collection of web pages. It is consist of hyperlinks to each other and made it available online. It can be done by an individual, educational institution, organization and others. The website owners usually give their homepage address, and people can go to other related pages in their sites through the homepage.

6.Web Server

Web server is a computer system that hosts websites. It is a program that uses HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) to serve the files that form Web pages to users. Any computer can be used as a web server, as long as it is connected to the Internet and has the appropriate software installed. There are many types of software for web server but Apache and Microsoft's IIS is the most common used by the users.

7. Homepage

Homepage is the main page of a website, which give the detailed information of the owner and contain the navigation bar that provides links to other web pages. Basically it is the first page seen by the users on the website. Some homepages provide updated information that change every day. For example is the online newspaper websites or portals.

8. Blog

Blog is a combination of words ‘web log’. It is defined as a list of journal entries posted on a web page. It is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. The owner of a blog is called a blogger. Blog is usually up-to-date and it generally contains the story of the blogger, usually in informal way whereby the blogger will tell about their personal life, experience or other information.

9. Web App

Web app or web application can be defined as a computer program that utilizes web browsers and web technology to perform tasks over the internet. Since they run inside web browsers, users do not need to develop web apps for multiple platforms. But web app do have disadvantages compared to desktop app. Since they do not run directly from the operating system, they have limited access to system resources, such as the CPU, memory and the file system. Web apps are also entirely dependent on the web browser, which means users may lose the unsaved progress if the browser crashes.

10. URL

URL stands for Uniform Resources Locator. It refers to an address of a specific webpage or file on the Internet. URL contains the URL prefix that specifics the protocol used to access the location, the domain name and the path to the directory or file. For example, in https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox, ‘https://’ is the URL prefix, ‘mail.google.com’ is the domain name, and ‘/mail/u/0/#inbox’ is the path to the directory. There are several types of URL prefix. Some of it are ‘http’ which means a webpage, website directory, or other file available over HTTP, and ‘ftp’ a file or directory of files available to download from an FTP server.

For more information about WWW, play the video below :

Most of the students keep confusing between Internet and WWW. They always thought that both of the terms give the same meaning. Contrary, the Internet and WWW are obviously two different things and totally vary. Thus, click the video below to simply understand the different between Internet and WWW.