The Internet is a very large collection of computers, all over the world, that talk to one another, sharing information in various ways. Two popular ways that information is shared are electronic mail (email) and the World Wide Web.
The Web is made up of two types of computer program – Web server programs, that store and send (or ‘serve’) information, and Web browser programs that receive information from Web servers and display to human users. The Web information is in the form of a special sort of computer file called a Web page.
The most important part of the Web for most users is the Web browser program (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera, etc.). This asks for Web pages from servers and then displays them to users. The ‘Browser’ section of this guide explores the most important parts of a Web browser.
Web browsers display Web pages. Pages are made up mainly of text and pictures, for human reviewing. They also contain links and forms.
There are billions of Web pages. To help you to find the pages that you want, you use a search engine. A search engine lets you type in words that describe what you are looking for, and then gives you a list of Web pages that it thinks are relevant to your search.