Learning Web Design, 5th Edition

2. How the Web Works

2

How the Web Works

In this chapter

An explanation of the web as it relates to the internet

The role of the server

The role of the browser

URLs and their components

The anatomy of a web page

I got started in web design in early 1993—pretty close to the start of the web itself. That’s a quarter of a century ago (gasp!), but I still distinctly remember the first time I looked at a web page. It was difficult to tell where the information was coming from and how it all worked.

This chapter sorts out the pieces and introduces some basic terminology. We’ll start with the big picture and work down to specifics.

The Internet Versus the Web

No, it’s not a battle to the death, just an opportunity to point out the distinction between two words that are increasingly being used interchangeably.

The internet is an international network of connected computers. No company owns the internet; it is a cooperative effort governed by a system of standards and rules. The purpose of connecting computers together, of course, is to share information. There are many ways information can be passed between computers, including email (POP3/IMAP/SMTP), file transfer (FTP), secure shell (SSH), and many more specialized modes upon which the internet is built. These standardized methods for transferring data or documents over a network are known as protocols.

The web (originally called the World Wide Web, thus the “www” in site addresses) is just one of the ways information can be ...