Chapter 2, Part B

It's a Wonderful World Wide Web

The Net's Wunderkind The World Wide Web

The services I mentioned above are important Internet underpinnings, but, with the exception of e-mail, they all take a backseat to the Net's current fave rave: the World Wide Web. (If "World Wide Web" is too much of a mouthful for you, the accepted short form is, simply, "the Web." In writing, you'll also see the Web referred to as W3 or WWW. The latter is still a bit of a tongue-twister, so you'll sometimes hear people pronounce WWW as "triple-dub.")

To demonstrate how popular the Web has become, let me give you a for-instance from the pages of Wired magazine, that unofficial arbiter of all that's too-hip-for-words among the digerati. Wired has a section called "Net Surf" that lists various interesting Internet sites. I checked an early issue of Wired from a couple of years ago, and "Net Surf" had 14 listings: four FTP sites, four Usenet newsgroups, one e-mail address, one mailing list, and four listings related to minor Internet services. However, the "Net Surf" section in the most recent issue of Wired had the same number of entries, but every one of them was a World Wide Web site! In other words, even Internet veterans are more or less ignoring the rest of the Net in favor of the Web.

The Secret of the Web's Success

What accounts for the Web's Elvis-like level of popularity? Well, I can put my fingers on a bunch of reasons, but I think three in particular are worthy of note: handsomeness, hypertext, and HTML (I call this the HHH of the WWW).

Handsomeness? Sure. When some Net brainiacs got together a few years ago to design the systems that would transport Web pages hither and thither, they were smart enough to anticipate the coming multimedia revolution. In particular, they didn't restrict Web pages to mere text. Instead, they made it possible for pages to contain pictures, fancy fonts, clickable buttons, and more. Depending on the browser software you use to access the Web, pages can be a real feast for the eyes and ears.

Hypertext? Sounds like text that's had one cup of coffee too many, but what's it really about? Well, let's look at an example. Throughout this book I'll be telling you about other chapters that are relevant to whatever I'm currently talking about. For example, I might say something like "For more info on the amazing Web watchamacallit, see Chapter 57." Wouldn't it be nice if you could just touch the reference to Chapter 57 and have the book open automatically to the correct page?

That's just what hypertext does. Hypertext is a special word or phrase in a Web page that acts as a link to other Net goodies (such as a different Web page). When you select the link (usually by clicking on it with your mouse), the linked resource automatically appears on your computer. Any word or phrase can be designated a hypertext link. Heck, there's no reason the link even has to be a word or phrase-a picture or button does just as well. There's also no reason why the link should point only to other Web documents. Why not use the link to start a Telnet session, FTP a file, or even access a Usenet newsgroup? As you'll see, the Web can do all this and more.

HTML? This, of course, is what this book is all about. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language, and it's what you use to design Web pages. It sounds like scary stuff, but it's really just a relatively small set of symbols that determine the look and feel of a Web page. I'll discuss HTML in more detail in the next chapter.

Some Web Words to Surf By

Like all Net services, the Web has its own vernacular and acronyms. To help you out as you work through this chapter and the rest of the book, here's a rundown of some common Web jargon (see "Speak Like a Geek: The Complete Archive," at the back of this book, for a larger list of Internet and Web lingo):

• browser The software you use to display and interact with a Web page. When cobbling together your own pages, you need to bear in mind that there are two kinds of browsers: those that display only text and those that support graphics and other fun elements. I'll talk more about this distinction as you work through Part 2.
• form A Web document used for gathering information from the reader. Most forms have at least one text field where you can enter text data (such as your name or the keywords for a search). More sophisticated forms also include check boxes (for toggling an option on or off), radio buttons (for selecting one of several options), and push buttons (for performing an action such as submitting the form over e-mail).
• home page The first Web document that appears when you follow a link to a Web server (see Web server).
• hosting provider A company that, for a (usually) small fee, will publish your pages on the Web.
• hyperlink Another name for a hypertext link.
• publish To make a Web page available to the World Wide Web community at large.
• surf To leap giddily from one Web page to another by furiously clicking on any link in sight.
• URL (Uniform Resource Locator) URLs A Web addressing scheme that spells out the exact location of a Net resource. I'll talk more about URLs in Chapter 7, "Making the Jump to Hyperspace: Adding Links."
• Web server A program that responds to requests from Web browsers to retrieve resources. This term is also used to describe the computer that runs the server program.