The Web in General
The World Wide Web is a huge amount of information all linked together. The information appears in the form of web pages.
Why use the Web?
The World Wide Web has a huge amount of information on it. Many things are available on the World Wide Web for educational purposes and for fun.
How do I get to a Web Site?
Web pages are displayed in special programs called web browsers. You can learn more about web browsers in the web browsers section. In browsers, web pages are addressed by a URL, or Universal Resource Locator. The URL has several parts which are displayed below:
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http:// |
The http:// portion of the URL tells a browser that the request is a world wide web page request. This portion of the URL is not always required but is a good idea to add anyway. HTTP stands for "Hyper text transfer protocol" |
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www. |
This begins the domain name of a URL. A domain name includes parts 2, 3, and 4. |
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yahoo |
This part of the URL is the most important. This refers to exactly where you want to go. In this instance, it is yahoo, a search engine. |
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.com |
This part of the URL is always present. There are several other endings to a URL but the .com is the most used. See below for a table of the most common of these. |
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/Computers/ |
Refers to a specific page on Yahoo. This is case sensitive meaning if you typed /COMPUTERS/ it would not be the same. |
The .com, .org, and such endings to a URL are part of it's domain name. All domain names have one of these endings. By looking at the ending of a domain name, a lot can be found out about it. Below is a chart of commonly used domain names:
Commonly used URL endings
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.com |
A commercial web site. Companies or profitable organizations have this type of URL. |
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.net |
Internet Service Providers have this ending to their URL. |
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.edu |
Educational Organizations such as schools or colleges have this ending to their URL. |
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.org |
Nonprofit organizations have this ending to their URL. |
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.gov |
Government organizations have this ending. |
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.us, .jp, .uk and other country codes. |
These are special URLs which refer to the country of where the web site is coming from. |
The best way to find information on the World Wide Web is through the use of search engines. See the information on search engines for more information on these.
What is the difference between
a web page, homepage, and website?
Web Pages, HomePages, and WebSites are three commonly used terms to refer to pages on the World Wide Web. Below are the definitions of each to end confusion:
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Web Page |
A web page is a single page on the Internet. Web pages sometimes make up larger web sites. |
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WebSite |
A web site is a large grouping of web pages that make up a large amount of related information. |
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HomePage |
A HomePage is usually a page for an individual. Many times, WebSites are also referred to as this. |
