World Wide Web - technical definition

(1) (WorldWideWeb) The first Web browser, written by Tim Berners Lee and introduced in early 1991. It ran on the NeXT platform, which was also used as the first Web server. See NeXT.

(2) (World Wide Web) A major service on the Internet. To understand exactly how the Web relates to the Internet, see Web vs. Internet. The World Wide Web is made up of "Web servers" that store and disseminate "Web pages," which are "rich" documents that contain text, graphics, animations and videos to anyone with an Internet connection.

The heart of the Web technology is the hyperlink, which connects each document to each other by its "URL" address, whether locally or in another country. "Click here" caused the Web to explode in the mid-1990s, turning the Internet into the largest shopping mall and information source in the world. It also enabled the concept of a "global server" that provides a source for all applications and data (see Web 2.0).

The Browser
Web pages are accessed by the user via a Web browser application such as Internet Explorer, Netscape, Safari, Opera and Firefox. The browser renders the pages on screen, executes embedded scripts and automatically invokes additional software as needed. For example, animations and special effects are provided by browser plug-ins, and audio and video are played by media player software that either comes with the operating system or from a third party.

HTML Is the Format
A Web page is a text document embedded with HTML tags that define how the text and graphics are displayed on screen. Web pages can be created with any text editor or word processor. They are also created in HTML authoring programs that provide a graphical interface for designing the layout. Authoring programs generate the HTML tags behind the scenes, but the tags can be edited if required. Many applications export documents directly to HTML, thus basic Web pages can be created in numerous ways without HTML coding. The ease of page creation helped fuel the Web's growth.

A collection of Web pages makes up a Web site. Very large organizations deploy their Web sites on inhouse servers or on their own servers co-located in a third party facility that provides power and Internet access. Small to medium sites are generally hosted by Internet service providers (ISPs). Millions of people have developed their own mini Web sites as ISPs typically host a small number of personal Web pages at no extra cost to individual customers.

The Intranet
The public Web spawned the private "intranet," an inhouse Web site for employees. Protected via a firewall that lets employees access the Internet, the firewall restricts uninvited users from coming in and viewing internal information. There is no difference in intranet and Web architectures. It has only to do with who has access.

HTTP Can Deliver Anything
HTML pages are transmitted to the user via the HTTP protocol. A Web server stores HTML pages for a Web site, but it can also be a storehouse for any kind of file delivered to a client application via HTTP. For example, the Windows version of this encyclopedia is available as an HTTP application. The text and images are hosted on The Computer Language Company's Web server and delivered to the Windows client in the user's PC. The Windows client is an HTTP-enabled version of the popular interface first introduced in 1996 for stand-alone PCs and client/server LANs.

Where It Came From - Where It's Going

The World Wide Web was developed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva from a proposal by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989. It was created to share research information on nuclear physics. In 1991, the first command line browser was introduced. By the start of 1993, there were 50 Web servers, and the Voila X Window browser provided the first graphical capability. In that same year, CERN introduced its Macintosh browser, and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in Chicago introduced the X Window version of Mosaic. Mosaic was developed by Marc Andreessen, who later became world famous as a principal at Netscape.

By 1994, there were approximately 500 Web sites, and, by the start of 1995, nearly 10,000. By the turn of the century, there were more than 30 million registered domain names. Many believe the Web signified the real beginning of the information age. However, those people who still use analog dial-up modems consider it the "World Wide Wait."

Everyone has some interest in the Web. ISPs, cable and telephone companies want to give you connectivity. Webmasters want more visitors. IT managers want more security. The publishing industry wants to preserve its copyrights. Hardware and software vendors want to make every product Web accessible. Nothing in the computer/communications field ever came onto the scene with such intensity. Even with the dot-com crash of 2000/2001, the future of the Web is going to be very exciting. Stay tuned! See Web 2.0, Internet, HTTP, HTML, World Wide Wait and Wild Wooly Web.