The Internet is a global network of computers that
communicate using a common language. It's similar to the international telephone system
-- no one owns or controls the whole
thing, but it is connected in a way that makes it work like one big network.
The World Wide Web (the web or WWW) gives you a graphical, easy-to-
navigate interface for looking at documents on the Internet. These documents, as well as
the links between them, comprise a "web" of information.
The web lets you jump or "hyperlink" from one web page to other pages
on the web. You can think of the web as a big library. Web sites are like the books, and
web "pages" are like specific pages in the books. Pages can contain news,
images, movies, sounds, 3D worlds -- just about anything. These pages can be located on computers anywhere in the
world. When you are connected to the web, you have equal access to information worldwide; there are no additional long-distance charges or restrictions.
A "home page" is the starting point for a web site. It is something
like the cover page or the Table of Contents of a book.
Each web page, including a web site's home page, has a unique address called a Universal
Resource Locator (URL). e.g. http://www.smallpondwebhosting.com/index.html
A "browser" is a software tool that you use to look at web pages.
Pages on the web are interconnected. You connect to other pages by clicking text or
graphics that are called hyperlinks.
Hyperlinks are underlined or bordered words and graphics that have web addresses
(also know as a URL -- Universal Resource Locator)
embedded in them. By clicking a hyperlink, you jump to a particular page in a particular
web site. You can easily identify a hyperlink. Hyperlink text is a different
color from the rest of the text in a web site.
