Some concepts that a person encounters every day may seem very familiar to us. Often we think that we know their meaning, but we can be very mistaken. A prime example is the World Wide Web. Some people think that the Internet is called that. But this is a common misconception.
What it is?
So, the World Wide Web is a system that provides access to special documents that are usually related. Moreover, these files have a special location: on PCs that are connected to the Internet. The term is also known as the World Wide Web.
What else can they call the World Wide Web? Sometimes users use the "web", which translates from English as "web", and the abbreviation WWW is also common.
The principle of the system
World Wide Web technologies help connect documents. All this happens due to the huge number of web servers that make up the World Wide Web.
Hypertext is usually used for communication. This technology is known to anyone who has ever logged onto the Web. For example, it can be most clearly seen on Wikipedia. When you open any article, you immediately notice a large number of links to other pages. This is precisely the technology by which the entire World System works.
You can make a website out of a certain number of web pages. At the same time, they should all be united by a single design, style and theme. Web pages in this case are hosted on a single server. To view data on the Web, users install web browsers.
Web server
The World Wide Web is a complex structured system. All of it consists of web servers. Each has its own location around the world. A web server is a program that works through activation on one of the computers. To do this, she uses a special protocol - HTTP.
To understand the principle of the web server, you can recall the usual search query: the program receives a request, processing which tries to find the necessary document on the hard drive. After a successful search, sends the file back.
Special language
For all data to be unified, you need to use a single language. This is usually HTML, which helps to create, store and display hypertext.
This process is called layout. Designers and partially programmers know about it. The layout specialist is called the webmaster.
When the file is written in the appropriate language, it is saved, and then distributed on the World Wide Web. HTML is the most common type of resource on the Web.
After the specialist has developed the appropriate file and sent it to the web server, it turns into a web page when it starts to be displayed to users.
Tool
You need a web browser to view the World Wide Web. Thanks to this tool, everyone can view pages. This special program displays hypertext and works with hyperlinks.
Hyperlinks are an element of a hypertext file that is a link to another component of the text located in the same document or in another. Thanks to this tool, each user can easily navigate the Internet.
History of creation
The World Wide Web Internet service owes its existence to creator Tim Berners-Lee. Robert Cayo, who helped Tim with this invention, is also mentioned with this name.
The concept of the World Wide Web was laid back in 1980. Then Berners-Lee developed the popular HTML, HTTP, and URL technologies. Then in Geneva, the scientist introduced the Enquire. This program helped to store information, so it became the basis for the WWW.
It took the scientist only 9 years to develop a large-scale project based on hypertext. The essence of Berners-Lee's work: there are a number of documents written using hypertext technology that are linked by hyperlinks. All this made it possible to search for the necessary data with lightning speed.
At the same time, descriptions of the main tools of the system were already ready: URL address, HTTP access and HTML-based writing. It took another 2 years to finalize the concept and formulate a specification and terminology. And although all this happened in 1991, the birth of the World Wide Web took place two years earlier.
Program appearance
Of course, the World Wide Web did not immediately gain worldwide recognition. It took scientists some time to put everything in order. For correct operation, it was necessary to create a web server, which Tim did, and after he developed the first browser.
In order not to reinvent the wheel, the first web browser was called the World Wide Web. This program worked on the basis of the NeXTSTEP platform. Its interface was very simple and straightforward. All data was displayed in the text, but occasionally there were images.
First site
Berners-Lee did not stop with the first site. He appeared in 1991. The scientist created a web page on which the concept of the World Wide Web was described. He also told users about how to use the browser and information.
Later it turned out that the site will be the first online directory. The developer decided to describe useful sites there and created a list of links.
Information Display
30 years have passed. During this time, everything has changed a lot. Technology is advancing, and we are already looking at the World Wide Web quite different from what it was 10 years ago.
Now information is displayed in passive and active access. In the first case, the user can read only, while active access involves editing in addition to reading.
Information on the Internet is displayed as follows:
- social networks;
- Forums
- blogs
- Guest books
- chats
- content management systems;
- wiki projects.
Of course, such differentiation is rather arbitrary, since many of them have long united, integrated into each other and cooperate with each other. The difference between such associations can only be in purpose, approach or positioning.
Future
The World Wide Web is a system that has not yet reached its peak of development. Given modern technology, we all understand how great the future of the World Wide Web is. Now a lot of resources are thrown into two directions: social and semantic.
The social network depends entirely on user behavior. It develops in accordance with how the ordering of information on the Web occurs.
The semantic web is a direction whose goal is to improve the relevance of queries and data connectivity. To do this, specialists are engaged in the introduction of new metadata.
Problems
Despite the bright future of the World Wide Web (Internet), much remains to be finalized. For example, security remains an unresolved issue. The advent of the World Wide Web has become an excellent platform for scammers who have found a way to gain profit.
Cybercriminals still continue to distribute malware. Online crime also includes espionage, fraud, identity theft and illegal collection of information.
The statistics turn out to be very sad: Google claims that on the Internet every 10 pages comes across one that has malicious code. The largest and most frequent cyber attacks come from legitimate resources, with most of them located in Russia, China and the United States.
The most common crime recorded attempts to maliciously enter database queries. If the site is poorly protected, this can cause free access to the database.
Many users also suffer from cross-site scripting. In this case, an attacker can obtain authorization data for different resources. For example, if your bank was attacked in this way, fraudsters can obtain data that you will later enter in order to gain access to your personal account.
Confidentiality
There are problems with privacy. Of course, many sites that care about customer trust will protect everything as reliably as possible. But a data leak all the same sometimes happens with resources: be it a bank or an online store.
But privacy can be compromised simply because of the principles of the World Wide Web. For example, a page may request certain information: location, age, or name. All this accumulates and falls into the hands of marketers and advertisers. They can use this data for their customer base. Many of your actions can help you understand what kind of relaxation, entertainment and interests you have.
All this information can really be used to compile relevant advertising and work with target audience. But sometimes the data can be transferred to third parties, and it is not known how they will come to them.
Social networks are now perhaps the most effective method of collecting information for scammers. They can know where you are from geolocation data, they can know what you are fond of and where you are going. Sometimes a user can become a victim of a bully, and sometimes more serious intruders.