World+Wide+Web



The WWW is simply a huge collection of **pages of information** which are linked to each other using **hyperlinks**. These pages are stored on computers called **web servers** and can be accessed by other computers using a **web browser** program such as Internet Explorer.

By clicking on a **hyperlink** (a linked word or picture), a user can be taken to another page of information. This page may be on a different web server on the other side of the world, without the user knowing! Web Sites

A group of related web pages owned and managed by an individual or organisation is called a **web site**. A web site normally contains a **home page**, which is the first document users see when they enter the site. The site might also contain additional documents and files. Each web page is typically stored as a separate file on a web server – each with its own unique address called its **URL (Uniform Resource Locator)**.

A URL looks like the following:

** http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/computingscience/infosys.html **


 * ** http ** :// || stands for **hypertext transfer protocol**. A protocol is an agreement between computers on how the information will be transmitted. ||
 * ** www ** || stands for the World Wide Web – a web page [1] ||
 * ** royalsoced ** || the domain – that is the registered web name of the organisation whose web site it is. In this case, it is the web site of The Royal Society of Edinburgh – Scotland’s national academy of art and science – the creator of this resource. ||
 * ** org.uk ** || the suffix which tells us what kind of site it is. In this case **.org** means a non-profit making organisation such as a charity or other body. ||
 * || a folder in the web site where web documents about Computing Science are stored. ||
 * ** /computingscience/ ** ||  ||
 * ** infosys.html ** || a file called “infosys.html” (the default home page of a website is usually called “index.html”). ||

[1] Tim Berners-Lee has since admitted that the “www” at the start of most URLs is actually unnecessary. He added that “it seemed like a good idea at the time”!


 * Task**